


LLS Demon AU

by Nozomiinotic



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 20:30:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15127268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nozomiinotic/pseuds/Nozomiinotic
Summary: Yohane is a demon from the demon world that needs to survive one year of school as a human. Ruby and Hanamaru are also demons who stay with Yohane to supervise her (but they can't be seen or heard in their forms). While in school, Yohane falls in love with a human named Mari, but she doesn't want Mari to know that she's a demon.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Kanan with green onion is an inside joke. The original context is Kanan texting You in an sif story that her soup needed more green onion.

Inside the room of Class 2-A, the teacher stood in front of the whiteboard, which had a name written on it, and the students waited patiently to hear what she planned to start the class with.   
“Today, we have a new student to introduce!” the teacher cheerfully told the class, gesturing to the student standing beside her.   
A lean girl with long blue hair in a bun and side ponytail watched the curious students with big magenta eyes, grinning at them all. Her uniform had a black blazer instead of everyone else’s dark blue blazers, but no one seemed to mind. She also had some cat-themed accessories, like a hair clip and a little keychain on a loop dangling from her skirt.   
“This is Yoshiko Tsushima, and she will be joining us in Class 2-A! It’s nice to have you with us, Yoshiko,” the teacher said sweetly.   
“Thank you, but it’s Yohane!” Yohane replied, spreading her arms out wide.   
Most of the students were visibly confused upon hearing Yohane correct her name, making her gulp nervously. Perhaps she shouldn’t have revealed her true name so quickly.   
The teacher chuckled softly. “Yohane, is it? I’ll keep that in mind.”  
-  
As Yohane left the classroom to go to lunch, two figures named Ruby and Hanamaru materialized from nowhere and surrounded her. Ruby had long red twintails and deep green eyes, and both the horns on her head and her tail had pointed, angular edges. Meanwhile, Hanamaru had golden brown eyes and brown hair that stopped above her shoulders, and her horns and tail were larger and rounder. Hanamaru also had a chubbier body than Ruby and Yohane. Sighing, Hanamaru put a hand to her cheek.   
“I thought you were going to keep your name secret while you were a human,” she told Yohane.   
“Sorry…I’m so used to being called Yohane in the demon world that I said it without thinking,” Yohane muttered, rubbing the back of her neck.   
“It’s okay, Yohane-chan! No one said anything bad about it, so I think you’re safe,” Ruby said, wanting to reassure her.   
“Hi!” a joyful voice called out to Yohane.   
Yohane’s eyes widened in surprise, and she turned her head to figure out who called for her. A student with fluffy blonde hair waved at Yohane, wanting her to come closer. Hanamaru and Ruby were confused and wondered if the student knew Yohane somehow.   
Yohane hesitated for a moment because she didn’t know why this student wished to talk to her, but eventually, she decided to walk up to the student and talk to her.   
“Hi…,” Yohane said, weakly raising her hand to wave a couple times.   
“You’re the new student, right? Do you need help getting to the lunch room?” the student asked her.  
Now that Yohane was inches away from the student, she was able to see her up close and realize one certain thing about her: She was beautiful. Her eyes were bright green with long eyelashes, and there was a warm smile on her rounded face. Like Hanamaru, she too was chubbier than Ruby and Yohane. and her skin was a little tanner than all three of them. Yohane didn’t realize how long she went without saying anything until the student asked her if she was okay. She nodded quickly in response.   
“Do you have enough money for lunch?”   
Yohane paused, trying to remember if she knew what money was. Unfortunately, she had no idea. Not sure what to say, Yohane looked up at her sadly.  
“Aww, you don’t? That’s okay! I got you covered,” the student said, placing a hand on Yohane’s shoulder.   
An unusually broad smile formed on Yohane’s face as her cheeks turned pink. The student’s touch felt warm and comforting to her, and it made it difficult for her to speak like she usually did.   
“Y-y-yes, let’s go,” she stuttered as the student guided her to the cafeteria.   
“My name is Mari, by the way!”   
“I’m Yohane…,” Yohane replied as the two of them were on their way to the cafeteria. Hanamaru shook her head as Ruby brought her fists to her chin and gave her a surprised look.  
“Who is that?” Ruby asked Hanamaru curiously.   
“Mari, apparently,” Hanamaru answered. “Let’s go check on Yohane!”   
-  
In the cafeteria, most of the students were already sitting down with their food by this point, one of them being a student named Kanan. Her hair was in a long, dark blue ponytail and her gentle-looking eyes were a medium purple. For lunch, she was having a sandwich and some soup, and as she ate her soup, she commented,  
“Needs more green onion.”  
Despite the lack of green onion, she still ate it anyway. Before Yohane could make her way to the lunch line, Mari gently pulled her back to stop her.   
“Don’t worry, I’ll go get it for you!” she told Yohane, going towards the line herself.   
Yohane thanked her before deciding to sit down at an empty table. Hanamaru and Ruby quickly settled down into the two seats next to her, and Ruby whispered to Hanamaru,  
“Do you think we can eat food in this form?”  
“Aww, you don’t have to whisper, Ruby, only Yohane and I can hear you… And yes, I think we can! Do you want to get in line?”   
“Do you think we need to get in line if no one can see or hear us?” Ruby asked.  
Hanamaru paused for a moment before speaking.  
“So you want to just take the food without waiting for it?”  
Ruby looked down at the table, unsure how to respond. Hanamaru grinned at her.  
“I can gladly do that.”  
Yohane was about to warn them to not cause trouble, but the two of them left the table before she could say anything. In demon form, Ruby and Hanamaru could quickly materialize their forms wherever they wanted to go, but Yohane couldn’t do that while she was a human. She sighed, shaking her head and hoping for the best case scenario.   
One of the last people in line was a girl with short orange hair and bright red eyes. Almost everything about her radiated energy, and she was very determined to get chicken nuggets for lunch today despite being late. This student’s name was Chika.   
In the lunch line, Chika gazed upon the trays of food and excitedly awaited her chance to get the chicken nuggets and fries. There were two trays of them left, and she was next in line, so she’d easily be able to get one of them. Or so she thought. As she reached out to take one of the trays, she froze when she saw the trays begin to move on their own.   
Chika could only watch in horror as the two trays floated away from her. She wondered if she should chase after the trays, but she decided against it because she didn’t want to risk angering whatever force was controlling them. When she sat down with her friends Riko and You, she informed them of what happened to her.  
“What? So the trays just moved by themselves?” You asked, making sure she got that part right.  
“Yeah! I was about to take one, but then they just-“Chika raised her arms in a sharp motion. “-flew away!”  
“S-so there might be some…g-ghosts at the school?” Riko stuttered.   
“Yeah!” Chika groaned, “Aah, I really wanted the chicken nuggets today…”  
“You can have the rest of mine, Chika! I think the lady gave me extra today,” You said, sliding the tray over to Chika.   
“Thank you, You!” Chika happily exclaimed, starting to eat.  
“We can’t just leave this a mystery, right? What do you think we should do?” Riko asked Chika and You.   
With her mouth full, Chika replied, “We’re gonna solve the mystery!”  
Riko eyes darted around the room.   
“The three of us?”   
“Yeah!”  
Before Riko could argue against it, Hanamaru’s arm passed through part of Riko’s body, causing a shiver to run up her spine. Her teeth chattered as she exclaimed,  
“Y-y-yes, let’s s-solve this!”  
-  
“How do you like the food, Yohane?” Mari asked sweetly, her hands on her cheeks.   
Yohane was trying her best to avoid eye contact with her, but she could still sense that Mari was happily watching her every movement. Before putting another chicken nugget into her mouth, she shut her eyes and smiled at her. Mari smiled back for a moment before putting a finger to her lips and asking,   
“Did I get you too much food? I asked the lunch lady for extra to make sure you got enough, but she kind of piled it on.”   
Yohane glanced down at the pile of nuggets and fries on the tray, realizing despite what she already ate, there was still a lot of food remaining. Not wanting to be rude, she shook her head and said,  
“Of course not! You got the perfect amount…Demons don’t have to worry about mortal limits, anyway.”  
Mari’s eyes widened just the tiniest bit at her response, making Yohane realize what she just said. Clearing her throat, she tried to change the subject.  
“So you said these are fries?” Yohane asked, picking up a handful of them.  
“Yes! They’re pretty good here, aren’t they?” Mari answered, her eyes returning to normal.   
Yohane was relieved that her subject changing worked.  
“They are!” she replied happily.  
As the two of them continued their conversation, Ruby and Hanamaru sat at another table and finished their food. At one point, Ruby elbowed Hanamaru, questioning if the two of them should check on Yohane. Hanamaru agreed, and so the two of them quietly appeared behind Yohane, listening in on them. Yohane started to blush when she realized they were around to hear her, and Mari asked if she was alright. Yohane nodded quickly, sneaking in a glare at Hanamaru.   
“Your cheeks are a little rosier than they were before,” Mari said, twirling a lock of her blonde hair, “It’s cute on you.”  
Hanamaru giggled at Yohane and Ruby agreed that it was cute. Cheeks getting even redder, Yohane frowned and put another bunch of fries into her mouth. Mari smiled at her, adding,  
“Would you like me to guide you back to class when you’re done?”  
Yohane nodded in agreement.   
-  
The student council president was someone who could best be described as sharp. Her hair was long, straight, and jet black, and her deep green eyes could pierce through anybody if she willed them to. She was walking with Kanan down the hallway, her arms behind her back as she listened to Kanan tell her what she was going to do after school.   
“What do you want to do after school, Dia?” Kanan asked her.   
“Well, I have some work I need to get done after hours, but once that’s finished…”  
Dia paused when she noticed Yohane further down the hallway. As she squinted her eyes, she grimaced at her. There was something about Yohane that made Dia uncomfortable, but she wasn’t going to confront a new student for a reason no one understood. Kanan noticed Dia looked upset and asked her what caused it. Dia quickly regained her composure when she realized Kanan saw the look on her face.   
“Once my work is finished, I’ll check some online sites for some…important information,” she muttered, trying to bring back the previous conversation.   
Kanan smiled, knowing exactly what that important information was. Giving Dia a thumbs up, she replied,  
“Sounds like a good idea!”  
-  
Once Yohane was finished with class, Ruby and Hanamaru followed her through the hallway.   
“What did you think of the class, Yohane?” Ruby asked.   
“I thought it was nice! Although, not much happens on the first day, so I can’t judge it yet.”  
Hanamaru grinned, wanting to chime in with a question of her own.  
“What did you think of Mari, Yohane?”  
Yohane’s eyes shifted to the ground as she frowned. Hanamaru giggled when Yohane started fiddling with her fingers. Being fidgety like this was unusual for someone like Yohane. Holding onto her arm, Hanamaru said,  
“She’s cute, hm?”  
Yohane reluctantly agreed with her. She did find Mari distractingly beautiful, but the fact that Ruby and Hanamaru could pick up on this so easily didn’t make her happy. Wanting to change the subject, Yohane exclaimed,  
“Enough of that, though! Why did you two get food at lunch? You don’t need to eat in this form!”  
“We just felt like eating something today, Yohane,” Ruby answered.   
“Someone might have noticed you guys…,” Yohane said with a sigh.   
Just as Hanamaru was about to speak up, she and Ruby noticed Dia coming their way and became silent. Yohane gave them a strange look, not sure what was wrong. When Dia cleared her throat, Yohane flinched and turned to look at her. She tried to straighten herself up and look just as serious as her, but Dia already saw her get scared upon her arrival, so it wasn’t going to change anything.  
“How was your first day at school?” she asked in a calm but firm tone.   
“I enjoyed it,” Yohane replied.   
“So you know, I am Dia, the student council president. I have a lot of experience with this school, so if you have questions about anything, consult me about it,” Dia told her.  
Ruby waved hello to Dia, making Dia look towards her. Yohane was confused as to why Dia stopped looking at her, but was relieved she no longer had to deal with her intimidating gaze. Dia tried her best not to say anything about them in front of Yohane, but when Hanamaru started doing some hand gestures at her, she bit her lip to hold it in.   
Not wanting Yohane to know she was seeing Ruby’s and Hanamaru’s actions, Dia turned away from the three of them and walked away as she said sharply,  
“Have a good rest of the day.”   
“You too, oneechan!” Ruby called out to her.   
Dia stopped in her tracks for a moment as her body stiffened. Sighing loudly, she continued to walk away. Ruby and Hanamaru were visibly amused by this, but Yohane didn’t know why.  
“Do you two know her or something?”  
“You didn’t recognize her?” Hanamaru asked Yohane, sounding surprised.  
Yohane shook her head in response, wanting to know how she and Ruby knew her.  
“That was the queen of the demon world!”  
Yohane choked on air, shocked to discover that she just talked to someone like that face to face.  
“Yeah, and she’s my older sister!” Ruby chimed in.   
When Yohane made another choking sound, Hanamaru pat her head.  
“Don’t die on the first day, Yohane.”   
Sputtering out a response, Yohane jerked herself away from Hanamaru so her hand wasn’t on her head anymore. Ruby’s eyes widened as Yohane shook her hands angrily.   
“Why didn’t you tell me the queen of the demon world was here at the school!? I would have said more than just “I enjoyed it”! I probably looked like a fool!”  
“I’m sorry, Yohane! We thought you knew!” Ruby quickly apologized.  
“Her hair is completely different than it is in the demon world…,” Yohane muttered, putting a hand over her eyes.   
“Hey, don’t worry about it too much…You’ll have more chances to talk to her.”   
“I guess that’s true, Zuramaru…Let’s go home now before anything else happens,” Yohane said.  
Both Ruby and Hanamaru agreed with her, and the three of them made their way back to their temporary living space.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m glad my classmates are fine with calling me Yohane…,” Yohane said once she got out of class for her break period, “I’m much more familiar with that name than Yoshiko.”  
“I just hope you don’t get in trouble for not using your assigned human name,” Ruby stated, looking to Hanamaru to see if she had anything to say about this.   
“Yes, I hope so too,” was all Hanamaru replied.   
“Where do you want to go for break, Yohane?”  
“I don’t know,” Yohane said, trying to think of where she wanted to go, “Maybe the library or something?”   
Hanamaru was beaming upon hearing the lovely L word and took Ruby’s hand.   
“I’d love that! Meet you there, Yohane!” Hanamaru said cheerfully, taking Ruby with her down the hallway.   
Ruby squeaked when Hanamaru first pulled her arm but quieted down as the two of them made their way to the library. Yohane smiled and shook her head. Judging on Hanamaru’s reaction, she made a good choice.   
Once Yohane reached the library, she was in awe at how many books there were. Walls and shelves were filled with them, all organized by genre and name. In a corner of the large room, there was an area for computers, but Yohane wanted to check out the books first.   
One book in particular piqued her interest: a book about greek mythology. Opening it up, she started to read through it and didn’t stop until she heard a scream come from the other side of the room. Wanting to know what happened, Yohane closed the book and peeked out from the bookshelves.   
Two books were floating in the air, their pages occasionally flipping forward. Chika witnessed this firsthand, and after she was giving a warning to be quieter in the library, she ran over to Riko, who was at one of the computers, to let her know what she saw. As Chika spoke, Riko listened but didn’t stop typing.  
“The books were moving by themselves?” Riko asked, surprised that Chika saw a paranormal experience two days in a row.   
“Yeah!” Chika answered. “One of them was about flowers and the other was about baking…Do you think this means something, Riko?”  
Riko gave her a confused look, not sure how the type of books were relevant to the situation.   
“The ghosts like flowers and baking? I don’t know if that means anything, Chika.”   
Moving her head to look around the library, Chika asked,  
“Hey, do you know where You went? She’d probably want to know about this.”  
“You went outside with one of the third year students,” Riko replied, “but I don’t know specifically where she is.”  
“Ah okay…,”Chika said, sounding defeated for a second before talking like her usual self again. “I’ll tell her later, then! Whatcha writing, Riko?”  
Riko scrambled to turn the text white so Chika couldn’t read it. She wasn’t ready to share her fanfiction with anyone, especially not the story she was working on. Once she made the text white, she wiggled the cursor to show Chika a blank screen.   
“There isn’t anything here! See, I’m just getting used to the computer!”  
-  
When Yohane confronted Ruby and Hanamaru in the library, she was visibly frustrated with them.   
“You two need to be more careful! You scared somebody earlier because they could only see your books!” Yohane told them, crossing her arms.  
“What else can we do, Yohane?” Hanamaru asked.   
Yohane’s eye twitched, but she tried her best to keep her cool.   
“Make sure people can’t see you reading!” she said a little too loudly.   
Just then, the speakers on the ceiling made an announcement to everyone in the library.   
“Yoshiko Tsushima, please come to the main desk.”  
Yohane glared at Ruby and Hanamaru before making her way to the front desk. Turning towards Hanamaru, Ruby held her book close to her body and asked her,  
“Hanamaru, if I wanted to read this book some more, what should I do?”   
“I think it’s okay if you just borrow it!”   
“It’s not like we can go check it out,” Hanamaru added, sticking out her tongue in a cutesy way.  
“Okay,” Ruby said, floating upwards so she was no longer on the floor.   
Together, Hanamaru and Ruby left the library, with Ruby holding her new book along the way.   
-  
When Mari saw Kanan in the hallway looking flushed and sweaty, her mouth was agape.  
“Kanan, are you okay?” she asked with a soft gasp.   
Kanan rubbed the back of her head, chuckling at her. She was glad Mari cared about her enough to be concerned, but she knew she was going to be fine.   
“Yep! I was just running around with a very energetic student today,” she told her.   
Mari giggled, knowing who the student probably was.  
“I see!”   
Mari paused for a moment and squeezed her hands together. Eventually, she wanted to get an answer about something on her mind, and now that she thought about it, Kanan would probably be the best person to share it with. Once she got Kanan’s attention, she asked,  
“Can I get your advice on something, Kanan?”   
Kanan was surprised to hear Mari sound so serious and told her without hesitation that it was fine. Mari was relieved and began to explain her situation.  
“I was helping the new student yesterday, and she was shy but really cute. I feel like I want to keep spending time with her so I can help her come out of her shell, but I don’t want to overwhelm her. What should I do about this, Kanan?”  
Kanan paused to think. She had never met this student before, but she could tell that there was something good about her if Mari had so much interest in her. If Mari was like this after just one day of knowing her, she must have been something special. Smiling, Kanan had a question for her.  
“Do you like her?”  
Mari was thrown off guard by the question. She didn’t have anything like that in her thoughts, but Kanan did have a talent for picking up on things other people couldn’t. Bringing her arms close to her body, Mari said in a low tone,  
“I might.”   
“I see,” Kanan replied, “Well, like any relationship, it’s best to take it slow. Keep spending time with her to get to know her more, and she’ll get to know you more as well. I think you’ll be able to tell when the time is right to let her know how you feel, if you still feel that way after all that.”  
Delighted at how well thought out Kanan’s advice was, Mari took Kanan’s hand in hers and shook it up and down. Kanan didn’t expect her to do that, but she was fine with it. She was just glad Mari seemed to like what she told her.  
“Thank you, Kanan! This was just what I wanted to hear…I’ll follow your advice as best as I can!”  
“Good! Maybe you can talk to her when classes are over.”   
-  
As Yohane was about to reach the door to the classroom, Hanamaru glided ahead of her and opened the door for her. To anyone that wasn’t Yohane, Ruby, or Hanamaru, it looked as though the door opened on its own.   
Yohane didn’t think much of it until she saw Chika staring at her with her mouth wide open in shock. Confused, Yohane asked her what was going on but stopped herself mid-sentence when she remembered that Hanamaru was still propping the door open.   
“Close that door!” Yohane told Hanamaru.   
Mumbling an apology, Hanamaru followed her orders and closed the door. Chika glanced at the door, then back at Yohane. She was amazed that Yohane was able to make the paranormal activity stop with just a simple command.   
“Can you talk to spirits?” she asked Yohane.  
It took a while for Yohane to understand what she meant by spirits, but when she figured out that Chika thought Ruby and Hanamaru were ghosts, she decided to roll with it instead of blowing their cover.  
“Yes!” Yohane exclaimed, “I’m learning to communicate with spirits, and I think I’ve become quite good at it!”  
When Ruby came closer to them with her book in hand, Yohane held her arm out in front of her, pointing to Ruby as she commanded her to put the book down. With a squeak, Ruby dropped the book. Chika was in awe at Yohane’s supposed power, clapping her hands.  
“That’s amazing!”  
“Yes! I’ve gained the ability to make them do my bidding!” Yohane said in a strong voice.  
“Can you help us figure out what’s going on with the spirits at this school, Yoshiko?”  
“If you can call me Yohane instead of Yoshiko, perhaps I can help you when I find the time!” Yohane stated, glad that her acting was convincing enough for Chika to believe her.   
“Of course, Yohane! Aah, I can’t wait to tell Riko and You that I’ve found a medium who can help us…”  
Yohane chuckled to herself. She may have given herself something new to deal with, but at least their secret wasn’t out to Chika.   
-  
Mari waited patiently outside of Class 2-A for Yohane. She knew she was a few minutes early, but she wanted to be ready for when Yohane came out of the classroom. Hands behind her back, she stood in front of the door until she heard the sound of someone’s voice.  
“Who are you waiting for?” a firm voice inquired.  
Mari gasped sharply when she realized Dia was standing behind her. Turning around to face her, Mari changed from worry to happiness and replied with a big smile,  
“Oh, Dia, you scared me! I’m waiting for the new student, Yohane!”  
Dia’s face scrunched up in disgust. Yohane was the student she didn’t trust, and she didn’t appreciate Mari getting involved with her. Not hesitating to tell Mari how she felt about Yohane, she said,  
“Yohane? I think it’s best to not interact with her.”  
Mari had a puzzled look on her face.  
“Why?”  
Dia went silent for a while, trying to find the best way to convey her message without admitting Yohane was a demon. If she just went and told her that, Mari would know that she was a demon as well. When she figured out how to say it, she spoke again.  
“I talked to her and found out she is not to be trusted. Don’t let yourself be fooled by her demeanor.”  
Mari frowned. Her view of Yohane was the exact opposite of that.  
“But she was so shy and sweet when I talked to her! She even ate all the food I got her to be nice to me,” Mari argued.   
“I mean it, Mari. I know something about her you’re not yet aware of, and that’s that she isn’t what she seems to be,” Dia replied sharply, not wanting to keep arguing with her.  
When Dia walked away, Mari dipped her head down in defeat. Dia usually had more experience with the students than she did, so maybe it was possible that Yohane really wasn’t what she seemed to be. Just as Yohane came out of the classroom, Mari left the hallway looking very upset. Seeing the forlorn look on Mari’s face made Yohane’s heart sink. Did she do something wrong?  
Ruby and Hanamaru tried to shake her out of her trance, but Yohane stood motionless. Taking ahold of one of Yohane’s arms, Hanamaru pressed her cheek against her upper arm.  
“Hey, Yohane…We need to go home soon,” she stated, trying to get her to start moving again.   
“Yohane, did something upset you?” Ruby asked, holding her hand.  
“I’ll tell you two about it when I get home,” Yohane muttered, stepping forward so Hanamaru and Ruby weren’t touching her anymore.   
-  
When Kanan found Dia, she looked and sounded concerned.  
“Hey, Dia…Mari seemed really upset when I saw her after class. Did you say something mean to her?”  
Dia frowned, not happy that Kanan was prying into the situation.  
“I told her the truth.”  
Kanan intertwined her fingers together, giving her an uncomfortable look.  
“Can you explain it to me later?”  
“I’d prefer not to.”  
Kanan shrugged, not wanting to risk making Dia angry. Maybe she’d figure out what was going on eventually.  
“Whatever floats your boat, I guess. So did you check your sites yesterday?”  
Dia nodded, acting a little less hostile now.   
-  
After Yohane told Ruby and Hanamaru what she saw, she lied down face first on her bed. Hanamaru tapped her back a few times and said,  
“Hey, don’t do that…When you’re in human form, you need to breathe.”  
“Would you like some chocolates we got from the front office?” Ruby chimed in, wanting to help out.  
With her face still pressed against the bed, Yohane nodded slowly. Hanamaru helped pull Yohane back up so she was sitting up again, and Ruby handed Hanamaru some of the chocolates she was holding so she could pass them over to Yohane.   
“Thank you guys…”  
Hanamaru was surprised how quickly Yohane ate the chocolates.   
“Were you hungry today?” she asked her.  
“I guess so? I wasn’t really paying attention to how fast I was eating,” Yohane answered.  
With a sudden burst of energy, Ruby felt determined to help Yohane return to normal.  
“Mari seems to be really happy around you, Yohane…I don’t think she’s upset with you!”   
Yohane was surprised by the strength in Ruby’s voice. When the time came for it, Ruby certainly knew how to try to motivate someone. However, Ruby’s statement didn’t line up with what happened after class. Yohane gave her a question to figure out why she said that.  
“Why was she waiting in front of my classroom, then?”  
“That’s because she wanted to see you and someone told her to leave!” Ruby said. “I’d be upset too if I wanted to do something and someone told me to stop doing it…”  
Yohane frowned, knowing what Ruby was referring to. However, she agreed with Ruby’s explanation. It would explain why Mari didn’t talk to her before she left. Glancing at Hanamaru, Yohane said to both of them in a serious tone,  
“I have a feeling I know which person told her to leave…”


	3. Chapter 3

Once class was dismissed for the day, Yohane leaned back against the wall and sighed. Hanamaru and Ruby stood on each side of her, giving her a curious look.   
“How long have I been at this school?” she asked the two of them.  
“A month,” Hanamaru answered.  
Putting her hands over her eyes, Yohane whined,  
“A month? Ugh, it feels like it’s been a whole year already!”  
“Don’t worry, Yohane! We’ll get through this year together!” Ruby said, trying to cheer her up.   
Taking her back off the wall, Yohane started walking so she could get back home. However, she stopped in her tracks when she thought she heard the familiar voice of Mari calling out to her. Yohane was happy to hear her voice after a month of not hearing it, but she also felt nervous. If Mari truly was behind her and wanting to talk, there was the possibility of her still being upset with Yohane. Turning around to face her, Yohane clenched her fists and braced herself for what she was about to hear next.  
Yohane blinked a few times when she saw a big bag of cookies dangling in front of her face.   
“I’m sorry, Yohane!” Mari cried out sadly, “I’m sorry for not talking to you for so long!”  
“Huh?” was all Yohane managed to say.   
Mari spoke with passion in her voice, determined to make things right with Yohane.  
“Dia told me not to talk to you, but I realized that I’m my own person! If I wanted to see you again, I could just go and see you! I just wish it didn’t take me a month to realize it…I’m sorry about that!”  
Yohane gasped quietly upon finding out her guess was correct. Dia really was the one that tried to convince Mari to stop seeing her. Wanting to let Mari know she wasn’t at fault here, Yohane said,  
“It’s okay, Mari! The important part is that you did what you wanted to do without someone else controlling you.”  
“Thank you, Yohane!” Mari exclaimed, grateful that Yohane forgave her.   
“I just have one question, though.”  
When Yohane had Mari’s attention, she pointed to the cookies and asked her,  
“What are these?”  
Mari pulled the bag back towards her, digging into it so she could take one of the cookies out.   
“They’re cookies! I made a whole batch for you as an apology gift…Would you like to try one right now?”  
Yohane nodded, examining the dark brown disk in her hand once Mari gave it to her. She took a bite, feeling a soft, gooey, chocolatey sensation in her mouth that made her eyes sparkle. Mari giggled when Yohane requested to hold the bag.   
“I’m glad you like them! Is this your first time eating double chocolate cookies?”  
“It’s my first time eating cookies in general!” Yohane said as she took another cookie from the bag.   
Before Yohane could take a bite of her second cookie, Hanamaru put her hands on Yohane’s shoulders and whispered in her ear,  
“Don’t spoil your dinner.”  
Yohane put the cookie back into the bag, clearing her throat as she calmed down. Mari giggled, thinking it was cute how excited Yohane got, even if it was just for a short moment.  
“I should save the rest of these for another time…Thank you for your offering, though!”   
Smiling, Mari replied,  
“You’re welcome!”  
-  
“Yohane, if I give you the bag, can you pass it to Hanamaru? She wanted another one,” Ruby asked her.  
“Sure.”  
Once the bag of cookies reached Yohane, Yohane brought it over to Hanamaru, who was lying down on the bed. The three of them decided to share Mari’s cookies since Yohane couldn’t eat all of them, and Ruby and Hanamaru wanted to try them as well. All of them thought they tasted great, although Yohane was the one who seemed to like them the most, and she also happened to be the one that ate the most of them. Reclining in her chair once she returned to her seat, Yohane sighed happily.  
“This was a remarkable gift…Mari is amazing, isn’t she?”  
Hanamaru grinned at Yohane as Ruby stared at her. Once again, Yohane openly expressed how much she loved being around Mari. However, this time she didn’t notice she did that until Hanamaru pointed it out to her.  
“She’s amazing because you love her,” she said with a chuckle.  
Yohane felt her cheeks heat up as she replied,  
“I’ve only known her for a few days! I can’t make a decision like that right now!”  
“But you ate five of her cookies today, Yohane...,” Ruby chimed in.  
“I was just extra hungry today, little demon…,” Yohane told Ruby, shutting her eyes to let herself rest.  
Ruby and Hanamaru looked at each other, then at Yohane relaxing in her seat. Yohane didn’t want to admit how different she acted when Mari was involved, but to the two of them, it was quite obvious.  
After Yohane woke up from a short nap, she decided to dispose of the empty bag. However, she stopped when she noticed there was something else inside of it: a folded up piece of paper with some chocolate smudges on it. Opening it up, she saw a message that had a phone number and read,  
“If you need my help outside of school, contact me here! –Mari”  
Yohane took her phone out of her pocket and quickly entered the number into her contacts. Then she put the paper into one of her drawers before Ruby or Hanamaru could see what she did.   
-  
The next morning in the president’s office, Chika, Riko, and You were standing in front of Dia, who was sitting at her desk. The three of them were frustrated that they hadn’t been able to solve the mystery of the school’s spirits in the last month, and their goal was to get Dia’s permission to investigate areas of the school they couldn’t normally access for new information.   
Dia didn’t like the idea because she didn’t want regular students to access private areas and files, but she also didn’t like it because she wished for the three of them to stop trying to find the origin of the spirits. She knew who both of the spirits were, and if she were to explain the truth about them, Dia would be found out as a demon.   
“Are you sure we’re not allowed?” You asked, checking to make sure Dia really did feel that way.  
“Yes, regular students like you three shouldn’t be able to search through confidential information,” Dia told them, wanting to make sure they couldn’t venture further into the situation.   
Defeated, the three second year students agreed with her and left the office. Dia let out a sigh of relief once they were out of the room. There were more people trying to investigate all of this than she expected.   
When the three second years found Yohane, Riko told her,  
“We have some bad news, Yohane…”   
“What’s that?” Yohane wondered.   
“We’re not allowed to search the other parts of the school for clues,” Chika answered sadly.  
It was strange to Yohane to hear someone like Chika sound so unhappy. She really was adamant about figuring out the mystery of the spirits at the school. Unfortunately, Yohane couldn’t find it in herself to tell Chika or Riko or You the truth yet. Knowing what they were like when they asked for her help a few times over the last month, they would ask how she knew about Ruby and Hanamaru being demons, and through that, they’d find out that she was one too.  
“That’s okay!” she said, “I can still assist you every now and then.”  
From hearing Yohane’s response, Chika went back to her usual excitable self. She was very thankful Yohane was willing to help them, because for the time being, she was a helpful resource for keeping the spirits under control.   
“Thank you, Yohane! You’ve been a big help to us so far!”  
Riko and You agreed with Chika, making Yohane smile. The second years still appreciated her efforts despite being unable to tell them the truth, and that made her happy.  
-  
After school, Yohane chose to text Mari for the first time. Hanamaru tried to peek at what she was doing because she hadn’t seen Yohane use such a strange device before. When Hanamaru asked her what she was holding, Yohane told her that she was given a phone when she came to earth so it could help her during the school year. She didn’t tell her the part where it wasn’t required for her to have one and she begged a few people to let her have it.   
Yohane’s first text to Mari read,  
“Hi, Mari! This is Yohane. Could we meet up somewhere tomorrow for you to help me with my homework? It’s a vocabulary worksheet and a few other things.”  
For the next few minutes, Yohane waited for a response, Ruby read her book, and Hanamaru closely watched Yohane’s phone. When a small dinging sound came from the phone, all three of them stopped to look at it.   
Unsure what was happening, Ruby asked Yohane what caused the sound.  
“I got a message,” she said quietly, preparing to read the response.  
“Yohane! It’s nice to hear back from you~ Of course I can help you out! Where do you want to meet?”  
Yohane was visibly delighted to hear a response like that.   
“Can we meet up at my house at 3:00?”  
The next reply from Mari came surprisingly quick.   
“Yes! Where is your house?”  
Yohane typed out the address, and Hanamaru asked who was messaging her. Yohane gulped nervously. It suddenly occurred to her that Ruby and Hanamaru were living with her, so they’d find out it was Mari whether she told them or not.  
Sighing to herself, she decided to confess who she was talking to right away.  
“I’m texting Mari for help with my homework.”   
Yohane still had her eyes on her phone, but she could tell Ruby and Hanamaru were giving her entertained looks. Neither of them knew how Yohane managed to get Mari’s number, but they thought it was funny how quickly Yohane and Mari were talking to each other and exchanging numbers.  
“What? She’s a third year student, so I’m sure she could help me out,” Yohane said to them in an attempt to defend herself.  
Although they agreed with her on that out loud, they still thought the same way as before.   
-  
Yohane checked the time on her phone, seeing that there were only a few minutes left until the time she and Mari agreed on. She hoped she gave Mari the right address and that the adults she lived with were fine with her visiting. However, she remembered that this house was the one Ruby and Hanamaru stayed in when they went through their school years on earth, so she could safely assume they’d be okay with something like that.   
This was the third time these host parents willingly housed a demon, but it was the first time a human classmate of one of those demons was coming over. The sound of the doorbell and people talking in another room stopped her from thinking further about the subject. No matter how they felt about it, it was too late now.  
Soon, Mari stood at Yohane’s door, knocking gently on it. Yohane opened it for Mari, looking forward to being able to spend time with her, even if it was just for homework.   
“Yohane! Are you ready for some vocabulary?”  
Yohane nodded quickly, leading Mari into the room. Hanamaru had to get off the bed so Yohane and Mari could work there, but Ruby was on the floor reading her book. She finished reading the sections that taught her certain baking techniques, but now she was on the part that listed some recipes using them.   
Yohane showed Mari the worksheet and let her read what the vocabulary words were.   
“Oh, these are easy ones!” she said with a smile.   
“They are?”  
“Yes!”   
Mari brought her arm behind Yohane’s back, bringing her close to her body as she used that hand to point to the words on the worksheet. Yohane’s arms were pressed close to her chest as she tried to process what Mari was doing. Mari’s arm felt so nice on her back, she didn’t want to risk her taking it away.   
“See this word here, inadvertent? That’s the one that means without intention. The way I remember that one is that it also means accidentally and it has an a and a d in it just like that word!”  
“I- I see,” Yohane stuttered, writing down the first answer.   
“And this word, parsimony? That one’s the one that has money in the definition! The ending part ‘mony’ kind of sounds like ‘money’, doesn’t it?”  
“It does…”   
Yohane wrote down the second answer, not realizing she rested her cheek against Mari’s shoulder until Mari interrupted herself mid-sentence to mention it.  
“I’m glad you’re getting comfy, Yohane,” she said sweetly. “Wanna hear the third answer?”  
Nodding in agreement, Yohane relaxed even more, really enjoying the warmth and softness Mari provided for her. Mari enjoyed this too. Yohane felt so delicate in her touch, and it gave her the urge to want to protect her. She hoped it wasn’t too strange of them to get close like this so quickly. They only knew each other for a few days now, even though it had been more than a month since they first met. However, Yohane didn’t seem to mind it at all.   
Once the two of them finished the vocabulary worksheet, along with the rest of the homework, they sat with each other for a while to have a conversation. Ruby and Hanamaru were playing with some of Yohane’s accessories, since they had little cat heads on them, while they waited for Mari and Yohane to finish. They hoped it would be soon, though, because they were running out of ideas of what to do with their free time.  
“Thank you for helping me out, Mari…I had a really nice time learning from you,” Yohane told her.   
“Aww, you’re welcome! I’m glad I was able to help you out,” Mari replied, lightly patting her back.  
Yohane let out a cutesy giggle without realizing it until after it happened. Hanamaru noticed it too and gave her an amused look in response. Getting embarrassed, Yohane pointed to Hanamaru and said,  
“Don’t look at me like that!”  
Mari was surprised to see Yohane pointing to what was seemingly nothing, but her surprise quickly turned into wanting to make Yohane feel better.   
“Don’t worry, Yohane, no one’s there!”  
“Yes, you’re right…Maybe I just got too paranoid,” Yohane responded, not ready to explain Ruby and Hanamaru to her.  
“That’s okay! I understand getting worried about something that didn’t need to be worried about,” Mari said with a wink.   
-  
An hour or so after Mari left, Yohane heard the sound of a new text message. Since Mari was the only person in her contacts, she knew it had to be her. Yohane read the message quietly to herself.  
“If you don’t eat enough during the day, that can also cause you to be more anxious! Make sure to eat and drink enough, okay?”  
Yohane appreciated the considerate message and texted her back,  
“Yes, I can do that!”  
She didn’t know how she met a person like Mari, but she was glad she did.


	4. Chapter 4

Yohane could sense a large shadow looming over her. When she opened her eyes to see what it was, she was shocked to find an unfamiliar version of Mari. Instead of her short blonde hair, she had long and wavy locks. There was no loop or braid in her hair, either, but she had stubby horns on the top of her head. Her outfit was something Yohane had never seen before- a dress with hearts on it underneath a long sleeve shirt, all in shades of pink, purple, and black.  
Yohane blushed a little as she watched Mari lean forward so their faces were close to each other’s. As she spoke, her voice had a warm, gentle tone.  
“Hey, baby,” she said to Yohane, “Do you need some help?”  
“Can you help me figure out where I am?” was Yohane’s first question.   
“You’re in the demon world, dear. You finished your year on earth and you’re with me now.”  
Yohane blinked a few times as her eyes darted around to try to process what Mari just told her. She had no idea how eleven months passed so quickly or how Mari made her way to the demon world if she was a human. Something wasn’t right about this, no matter how nice it would have been for her and Mari to be together in the demon world.   
“How did you take on this form if you’re a human?”  
Mari giggled. Yohane must not have understood what was happening here.  
“I’m a demon like you are, sweetie…You just don’t know it yet.”  
Yohane woke up in the middle of the night with a loud gasp that jolted Ruby and Hanamaru awake as well. Both of them made their way to Yohane as quickly as they could to see if something was wrong. She breathed heavily for a while after she woke up, but her breathing eventually returned to normal.   
She never thought she would see the demon version of Mari, even in her dreams. Yohane explained her dream to Ruby and Hanamaru as clearly as she could remember it. Both of them were confused when Yohane mentioned the part about Mari saying she was a demon too.  
“As the princess of the demon world, I can say that Mari’s not a demon,” Ruby stated.  
“Why did she say that in the dream?” Hanamaru asked Yohane.  
“I don’t know…When I was falling asleep, I was wondering why I felt such a strong connection with Mari. Maybe my dream thought it was because she was a demon just like us?” Yohane answered quickly, pressing her hands against her cheeks to help cool herself down.  
“Don’t worry about it, Yohane…,” Ruby told her as Hanamaru ran a hand through Yohane’s messy hair to try to calm her down.   
It took a while for Yohane to fall back asleep, but Hanamaru continuing to stroke her hair helped her relax enough to do so.  
-  
The next morning, Yohane chose to text Mari about the dream. She didn’t want to explain specifically what happened in it since it involved the demon world, but she did want to figure out why she had a dream about Mari for the first time.   
“Mari, I had a strange dream last night and I’m wondering what it means…”  
“Oh, are you talking about dream meanings? My friend Kanan knows a lot about that stuff! Would you like me to have her talk to you during lunch?”  
Yohane didn’t expect Mari to give her a response like that, but she was fine with it. She had never met Kanan before, but if she was a close friend of Mari’s, she would probably be a very nice person.  
-  
As the two of them sat across from each other at the table, Kanan stared blankly at Yohane. Yohane fiddled with her fingers underneath the table, not sure how to start the conversation with her. Neither of them had eaten their food yet, but Yohane was too afraid to start eating in front of her.   
After a while, Yohane felt comfortable enough to speak up, sounding very polite as she did so.  
“Hello, I’m Yohane. Was it true that your friend Mari wanted me to talk to you about my dream?”   
Kanan blinked a few times, finally realizing that this was the student Mari told her about this morning.  
“Oh, Yohane!” she said loudly, “You’re the one that wanted to know about your dream, right?”  
Yohane felt better now that she heard Kanan say something. She seemed much more approachable now. It made her comfortable enough to start eating her chicken sandwich. After taking her first bite, she replied,  
“Yes, I am!”   
“Awesome! So what happened in your dream?”  
Yohane thought for a moment so she could come up with a way to explain it without mentioning anything about the demon world. When she came up with something, she said,  
“I had a dream where I woke up and Mari was kneeling over me, and then she said it was just her and me in this strange dimension, and then I woke up…”  
“Ah, I see! Well, dreams about someone looming over you means that they’ve frequently been on your mind. So I guess your dream is telling you that you’ve been thinking a lot about Mari lately.”  
Yohane was a little embarrassed to hear that she was thinking about Mari to the point of seeing her in a dream, but she was glad that Kanan was able to explain why she dreamt about it. She wished she could get clarification on why Mari was a demon in her dream, but she couldn’t let Kanan know about that part.  
“That makes sense!” Yohane agreed.  
“Mari is a nice girl, isn’t she?” Kanan asked with a gentle smile.  
Yohane stopped herself before she took another bite of her sandwich.   
“Y-yes…”  
Kanan was delighted that Mari and Yohane seemed to like each other so much and wanted to let Yohane know how Mari felt about her.  
“Mari thinks you’re a very nice girl too. And you sound like it based on what we’ve said to each other so far,” she told her with a silly wink.  
“Has she told you about me?”  
Kanan nodded enthusiastically.  
“Yep!”   
Just as Yohane was about to ask Kanan what type of things Mari told her, the bell that marked the end of lunch time rang. Fortunately for Yohane, she was able to eat almost all of her food before the bell rang. However, Kanan ate none of hers.   
“I guess it’s time to get back to class! It was nice talking with you, Yohane!” Kanan said, getting out of her seat and taking her food with her. Yohane outstretched her arm dramatically to stop her, and Kanan paused to ask what she wanted to say.   
“You didn’t get to eat anything!” Yohane exclaimed, feeling responsible for her eating nothing. “Shouldn’t you stay a little longer so you can do that? I can stay with you!”  
“Nah, I’ll be alright! I can hide it during class. It’s important for both of us to get back on time,” Kanan replied, walking away with her food.  
Yohane let out a sigh once Kanan left the cafeteria. At least she put in her best effort to help her.   
-  
When Yohane’s class was finished, she left the classroom feeling joyful. She got perfect scores on the homework Mari helped her out with. Feeling like she wanted to share the excitement with someone, Yohane called out to Hanamaru and Ruby. However, she was met with silence.   
Yohane wondered where the two of them went, peeking back into the classroom to check if they were still in there. Neither of them were in the classroom.   
Since Ruby’s and Hanamaru’s forms had the ability to transport themselves anywhere they pleased, Yohane would have a very hard time searching for them. That was the reason why Yohane was usually the one Ruby and Hanamaru would check on, not the other way around.  
Yohane was relieved when she found You in one of the rooms she checked.   
“You!” she said loudly, hoping to get her attention.  
You was pleasantly surprised to see Yohane, waving at her from across the room.   
“Hey, Yohane! What’s up?”  
“Have you seen any strange spirit activity lately?” Yohane asked her.  
You thought for a moment, putting her hand to her chin. She did get a message earlier from Riko that said a student in the front office saw something strange, but that was all she knew.   
“Riko said something happened in the front office earlier, but that’s the only thing I know,” she replied.  
Yohane was glad You mentioned a new location she could search in, but she wanted to ask Riko about it too. She also wanted to know if Chika knew anything.   
“Interesting…Do you know where Riko and Chika are?”  
“Riko’s in the cafeteria and Chika’s in the library, I think?” You said with uncertainty.   
She hadn’t heard back from either of them in a while, so she could only guess where they were on the things they last messaged her about. Yohane thanked her for the information and went to check the cafeteria first.  
Once she reached the cafeteria, Yohane found Riko on her knees picking up pieces of trash and putting them in a trash can that flipped over on its side. She flinched when she realized she wasn’t alone in the room anymore.   
When Riko yelped fearfully, Yohane calmed her down.   
“It’s okay, Riri! It’s just me, Yohane!”  
“Oh, it’s just you!” Riko said, sounding very relieved.  
With a calmer tone, she asked Yohane,  
“Hey, Yohane, would you be able to help me pick up the rest of this stuff?”  
Saying yes, Yohane got on her knees and bent down to pick up some of the pieces of trash. Although it was a little gross to be touching some of these discarded pieces of food, she didn’t mind doing it, and Yohane was amazed that Riko- someone who would normally be freaked out by unsanitary things like this- was touching it without any visible issues.  
In her heart, Riko knew she’d want to wash her hands multiple times after this. Some of these trash items probably had mouth germs on them. She was grateful she had someone else to help her out.   
“So what happened here, Riri? Why did one of the trash cans fall over like this?” Yohane inquired.  
“I don’t know…I heard a loud banging sound come from the lunch room, so I came in here to see what caused it, and suddenly one of the trash cans had fallen over! It’s strange…there was nobody in here when it happened,” Riko answered.  
Yohane could assume that either Ruby or Hanamaru was the one who knocked over the trash can while trying to do something. After telling Riko that it was the ghosts who did it, Yohane took the last few pieces of trash on the floor and got them into the trash can.   
The two of them worked together to get the trash can upright again. As soon as that was finished, Riko politely thanked Yohane and excused herself to the bathroom to clean her hands. Yohane’s plan of action now was to go see Chika in the library.   
Since Chika was in the library, she was trying her best to not make any loud sounds, but she was freaking out over a caterpillar she had her eye on. She had been tracking it down for a while now, but given some of the strange things the caterpillar did in front of her, it seemed like she wasn’t the only one trying to chase after it.   
Every now and then, the caterpillar would levitate a couple inches above the ground before falling back to the ground. Once Yohane got close enough to Chika, she was able to see two familiar people nearby her. It was somewhat of a funny sight watching three people hunting a colorful little caterpillar, but Yohane was just glad it didn’t take too long to find Ruby and Hanamaru.   
Putting two of her fingers on her forehead and using two fingers on her other hand to point to the three of them, Yohane commanded,  
“Stop interfering with the caterpillar, you two!”   
Ruby and Hanamaru stopped, and Chika stopped soon after them when she realized Yohane was in the library with her. Pointing to herself, Chika said with a confused look,  
“You two? It’s just me.”   
Wiggling her fingers, Yohane answered,   
“I sense that two spirits are in the room with you…They’re trying to catch the caterpillar and not succeeding at it.   
“Whoa, there’s two of them?” Chika asked, surprised that there was more than one spirit involved.  
“Indeed there are!”  
Chika felt something crawling on her leg and looked down at her feet to see the caterpillar climbing on her. She bent forward to pick it up and giggled as it crawled all over her hand. Ruby and Hanamaru gave Yohane a sad look now that they weren’t able to catch the caterpillar anymore.  
“What did you two do today?” Yohane asked the two demons, “And why did you cause such a ruckus?”  
“I found a caterpillar and I caught it to show Ruby, but it frightened her so it fell out of my hand and we chased it through the school,” Hanamaru answered.   
“Yeah, and I ended up knocking over a trash can while we were in the cafeteria! I’m sorry about that,” Ruby chimed in.   
“Ah, I understand now!”  
“What did the ghosts tell you, Yohane?” Chika asked, having watched her while she nodded and listened to what Ruby and Hanamaru’s responses were.  
“They told me that they caught a caterpillar and were chasing it all over the school! And they knocked a trash can over by accident,” Yohane replied.   
“Whoa…Even though you’ve done it before, it’s so cool that you can talk to spirits like this!”  
Yohane’s chuckle was low and ominous. It made her very happy that not only was she able to keep the demons a secret by pretending they were ghosts, but it made Chika and Riko and You very impressed with her supposed spirit communication abilities.   
“Thank you, Chika! I’m glad you appreciate my skill.”   
-  
Once Ruby, Hanamaru, and Yohane left the school, Yohane talked with the two of them as they all made their way to the house. She didn’t like that the two of them caused enough trouble to get the second years’ attention, but she was relieved that she was able to find them eventually.   
“You two really should be more careful,” Yohane warned them, “You were lucky this time, but what if someone else picks up on what you’re doing?”  
Yohane stopped walking when Hanamaru asked,  
“Like Dia?”   
Yohane didn’t hesitate to tell her,  
“Yes, like Dia! In fact, she’s the one that absolutely shouldn’t see what you’re doing!”   
“Yohane, are you going to talk to oneechan about Mari?” Ruby asked, being reminded by the mention of her sister.   
Yohane tugged on her collar, trying to avoid eye contact with Ruby. Given how scary Dia was to her, Yohane really didn’t want to confront her again, especially when it came to her and Mari. When Hanamaru repeated the question but replaced the word ‘oneechan’ with Dia, Yohane exclaimed,  
“I can’t!”  
When Ruby and Hanamaru gave her blank looks, Yohane cleared her throat and added in a calmer voice,  
“At least, I’m not ready to do it yet. Give it some time, you two.”  
-  
As Yohane shut her eyes to fall asleep, she felt her heart start racing. She wondered what type of dream she’d have tonight, and if it was another dream about the demon world, she didn’t know if she was ready for that.   
She shifted around in bed for a while, but once she had the blanket bunched up so she could hug it, her heartbeat slowed down enough for her to relax and fall asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Since it was now October, the school began to celebrate Halloween. The hallways had pumpkin, bat, and ghost decals on the wall, the bulletin boards had Halloween-related activities pinned to them, and some classrooms had candy on the teachers’ desks to reward students for a job well done.   
Class 2-A happened to be one of these classrooms, and Yohane quickly raised her hand to answer the teacher’s question so she could try to get a piece. Hanamaru and Ruby stared at her with anticipation, hoping she would get chosen and answer the question correctly.  
When she actually did get picked, Yohane got nervous because the two demons began to watch her even closer than before. She gave the teacher her best guess and managed to sputter out the correct response. As the teacher put a piece of candy on her desk, Ruby and Hanamaru cheered for Yohane.   
“Oh, it’s a peanut butter cup…” In a whisper, Yohane asked the two of them, “Which one of you liked the peanut butter cups?”  
Ruby raised her hand slightly.  
“I’ll give it to you when we get back,” Yohane told Ruby, making sure the other students couldn’t hear her.   
-  
After school, Yohane and Mari sat next to each other on a bench outside to talk. Mari had her hands resting on her thighs as her legs were crossed. Yohane sat in a less laid-back position with her legs close together.  
“Do you like Halloween?” Mari asked her, bringing up a new subject for the conversation.   
“I do!”  
Although Yohane wasn’t entirely familiar with the holiday yet, she really enjoyed what she saw so far. All of it looked so welcoming and entertaining, and she thought the various mascots of Halloween were pretty cute as well. Getting excited just thinking about it all, Yohane added with a dramatic voice,  
“Black wings of bats fluttering about in the night sky, pumpkins of all shapes and sizes surrounding us with their warm light, the elusive ghosts roaming the otherworldly realm in which we can’t enter…It’s amazing!”  
Mari’s eyes widened as a large open-mouthed smile formed on her face. She never heard Yohane be so passionate about something before, and she thought it was positively adorable.   
“Yohane, that was like a beautiful poem! You must really like Halloween!” she responded joyfully.   
“Yes, I like it a lot!”  
“Do you like the candy too, Yohane?” Mari asked Yohane with a sweet smile.  
“I do like the candy, yes!” Yohane replied, her voice filled with energy.  
“What type of candy do you like?”   
Yohane hadn’t tried many varieties of desserts yet, but she knew for certain that she loved almost every chocolate treat she ate since she came to earth as a human.   
“Chocolate!”  
Mari giggled. She wasn’t used to Yohane having this much excitement in her responses, but she really found it pleasant. Now that Mari knew what type of candy Yohane liked, she had a plan.   
Once the two of them said goodbye and parted ways, Mari was on her way to the nearest store.   
-  
Yohane gasped when she found a giant basket on her desk the next day. Upon further examination, it was filled to the brim with bags of candy, along with a few full size candy bars thrown into the mix. Buried inside the basket, Yohane also found a folded up piece of paper. Opening the paper revealed a message inside.   
“I got a whole bunch of chocolate for you so you could pick and choose what you want! Happy Halloween, Yohane ♡ -Mari”  
Ruby giggled when she read the message, while Hanamaru simply responded,  
“Mari sure did give you a lot!”  
Yohane had a feeling she knew what Hanamaru was hinting at based on her tone; she wanted to eat the candy along with her. Of course Yohane would allow Ruby and Hanamaru to eat some of the candy, especially since there was way more in that basket than she could ever handle on her own.   
Some of the classmates gave Yohane surprised looks, but it was because of the overfilled basket covering her desk. Yohane gave some of the students an embarrassed smile as they passed by, and eventually, she lifted up the basket so it was underneath her desk. Every now and then during the class session, Yohane had a thought about Mari. She didn’t know how Mari was able to get so much candy for her, but it made her happy that Mari wanted to do such a thing for her. Yohane really did enjoy being with Mari, and she was glad Mari seemed to feel the same way.  
As Yohane left class for her lunch break, she had to carry the basket of candy with both her hands. She froze in her tracks when she spotted Dia in the hallway. Dia gave Yohane a stern look for a moment but walked away shortly after. Yohane gulped in response. It was only for a few seconds, but now that Dia knew that Yohane was given all this candy, she could probably guess who gifted it to her.   
Yohane inspected the bags of candy in her gift basket more carefully once she was in the cafeteria. Ruby and Hanamaru didn’t touch any of the bags, but they watched Yohane as she went through each one. In awe at how many different types of candies there were, Yohane explained some of them to Ruby and Hanamaru.   
“There’s so much in here…milk chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate with caramel, dark chocolate sea salt caramel…There’s even some with icing in them!”   
“How did Mari afford all this?” Ruby asked curiously.   
“She must be loaded!” Hanamaru said, her eyes sparkling upon seeing all the bags of candy spread out on the table.   
“She might be…,” Yohane whispered to herself.  
After thinking about it a little more, Yohane realized that even with Ruby and Hanamaru helping out, they would never be able to finish all of the candy. Looking up at the two of them, Yohane shared an idea she came up with.   
“Should we give some of this candy to my friends?”  
Hanamaru frowned. She kept this secret from Ruby and Yohane, but she had planned to eat the rest of the candy they couldn’t, despite being entirely aware of how much there was.   
“What do you mean?” she asked, deciding not to admit this plan to them.  
“Chika, Riko, You, and Kanan! It might make their day if I give them some,” Yohane answered.  
Ruby smiled, clasping her hands together. She found it nice that Yohane made friends with students besides Mari, and following through with a sweet gesture like that was something she’d definitely support.  
“That’s a good idea, Yohane!”  
Yohane appreciated Ruby’s enthusiasm.   
“So, it’s settled! We’ll go visit them and see what they’d like to have,” Yohane stated, putting the bags of the candy back into the basket and removing it from the table. Although the basket was heavy, Yohane was able to manage lifting it.   
The first person they visited was Kanan, who was cutting up pieces of a green onion she brought to school for her lunch when they found her. Kanan stopped cutting and blinked with surprise, wondering why there was suddenly a basket of candy in front of her. When she heard Yohane call her name, Kanan looked up at her and said hello.  
“Mari gave me a bunch of candy, but I don’t think I can eat it all. Do you want to take a bag?”  
Kanan chuckled softly. She appreciated Yohane’s offer, but she wasn’t really the type that liked chocolate or candy. Shaking her head, she replied,  
“It’s nice of you to offer, but I don’t think I’ll take any.”  
“I rather save it for someone else who wants it,” she added with a wink.  
Hanamaru gasped, wondering if Kanan was referring to her and Ruby. However, when she realized Kanan knew nothing about them, she calmed down. Although she didn’t outwardly express it, she was glad no one took any of the candy yet. However, she’d soon be disappointed once they visited Chika.  
When Yohane asked Chika if she wanted any, Chika quickly raised her hand and requested to look at them all to pick what she wanted. Ruby liked seeing Chika get so excited about it, but Hanamaru clung to Ruby’s arm, watching Chika with narrowed eyes.  
“Can I have this one?” Chika asked Yohane, holding up a bag of milk chocolate caramel candies.   
“Sure!”  
“Thank you, Yohane!” Chika said, starting to open up the bag, “You should ask which one Riko wants!”  
Riko was surprised when Yohane placed the basket in front of her. She had no idea how Yohane got all of this candy, but she didn’t question her about it. When she was asked what she would like, she pointed to the chocolate covered wafer candies sticking out from the top and said she’d choose that one.   
“Are you going to ask You if she wants some too?” Riko asked Yohane.  
“I was thinking about it, yes, “Yohane answered.  
“You don’t have to worry about her…she’s not really interested in candy.”   
“Oh, like Kanan!”  
Riko looked visibly confused because she didn’t really know who Kanan was, but she responded with the same tone as before.  
“Yes, I wanted to let you know so you had more time to eat your lunch instead of searching for her.”  
Thanking Riko before she, Ruby, and Hanamaru left her table, Yohane went back to carrying the candy basket. She was glad that there were two less bags she had to deal with, and Hanamaru was grateful that only two bags were taken away. Yohane settled down at a table and grabbed the bag of dark chocolate sea salt caramels to start eating from it. She didn’t pay much attention to how much of it she ate, but she didn’t care much about it.   
-  
Getting back to her class made Yohane realize that she really should have paid more attention to how much she ate at lunch. She tried her best to get through the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, though. Hanamaru had something to say about it, much to Yohane’s misfortune.   
“I can’t believe you ate a whole bag…”  
“I know,” Yohane groaned at her, “I just wasn’t thinking about it, okay?”   
“Were you thinking about Mari?”   
Ruby’s question wasn’t something she really wanted to hear at the moment, since it was absolutely true but she wouldn’t dare confess that to them. As though Ruby’s words were a summoning spell, Mari could be seen from further down the hallway.  
Once Mari was close enough to Yohane, she could detect that she wasn’t feeling well and her maternal instincts kicked in. As quickly as possible, she pulled a wipe out of her pocket and started wiping Yohane’s face to help her cool down. Then she unbuttoned Yohane’s blazer so she had more room to breathe and gave her a drink of water from her water bottle.   
Everything Mari did for Yohane happened so fast that she couldn’t process any of it until it was finished. Once Yohane understood what just happened to her, Mari’s eyes met with hers as she told her,  
“When you have a stomachache, the three things I just did should help you recover!”  
Yohane blinked a few times at her, in awe that Mari appeared to have so much knowledge on this. Apparently, she knew enough about it to be able to tell she had one without mentioning it to her. After Yohane asked Mari how she knew her stomach hurt, Mari winked and giggled softly. Based on how Yohane behaved when she was given her cookies, Mari assumed that Yohane was going to get too excited about the candy as well.   
It took her a minute to notice, but after Mari helped Yohane out with her three methods, she did feel at least a little better afterwards. Upon Yohane thanking her, Mari replied,  
“Aww, it’s no problem, Yohane! I just want to make sure I can help you feel better when you’re struggling! You’re a very sweet girl, and you don’t deserve to be in any pain.”  
The rest of Mari’s kind words soon turned into incoherent stammering when Dia stood behind her and asked what she was doing. Turning around slowly, Mari tried her best to manage a smile in front of her. Dia wasn’t having any of it, however. No matter how cheerful Mari looked, both of them knew that she rebelled against Dia to be able to talk to Yohane.   
Yohane watched the two of them from a short distance with the type of posture that made her look as though she was shriveling up. Technically speaking, Yohane was the reason why Dia found them out.   
“How long have the two of you been spending time with each other?” Dia asked Mari with a surprising amount of calmness in her voice.  
“I’m honestly not sure…,” Mari stated, not having kept track of the time. “Maybe a month or two?”  
Dia shut her eyes and bit her lip. It was frustrating to find out that Mari saw Yohane behind her back for so long. Shaking her head a little to regain her cool composure, Dia replied,  
“Why did you do this, Mari? I told you that Yoshiko wasn’t someone you should trust, and yet you still chose to see her.”   
“It’s Yohane!” Mari corrected loudly.  
Mari flinched a little when Dia locked eyes with her. Dia knew that Yohane was her name in the demon world, so Mari using that name made her assume Yohane told Mari something about the demon world. The last thing she wanted during this school year was for the secret behind the demons to be revealed to any of the humans, and her blood boiled at the thought of it actually happening.  
“What did she tell you!?” Dia asked loudly, borderline shouting at her.  
When Mari fumbled and couldn’t find the right words to say, Yohane thought it was appropriate to finally jump into the conversation. Positioning herself so she stood between Mari and Dia, Yohane defended her as strongly as she could.   
“I didn’t tell her anything you think I told her, Dia! All three of us are regular students just trying to endure the perils of the school year together!”  
Dia scoffed. Yohane was not acting like her usual self, but she didn’t want to let that faze her.   
“What are you going on about, ‘perils of the school year’?”   
Mari was surprised when Yohane started mouthing words and only quiet wind-like sounds came out. Dia was also surprised that Yohane responded to her in the demon world’s language. Choosing to speak in the language as well, Dia argued back with her. Their exchange lasted for a while, making Mari able to do nothing but sit there and witness it happening.   
Eventually, Dia let out a sigh both Yohane and Mari could hear.   
“Fine,” she told the two of them, “If you really want to see each other so badly, just be careful.”  
Dia spoke one more time in the demon language to explain to Yohane that she mustn’t admit that any of them were demons. Yohane nodded in response, and when she and Mari took each other’s hand, they politely thanked Dia for letting them off the hook.   
“That was really brave of you, Yohane,” Mari said as she squeezed Yohane’s hand a little.   
Yohane looked embarrassed, but there was a broad smile on her face. Dia wasn’t someone she felt comfortable talking to, especially during a heated argument, but the urge to protect Mari outweighed the stress of confronting her.   
“You know, there’s something I want to share with you…,” Mari added, looking up at the ceiling.   
“What’s that?” Yohane asked, curious what it could be.   
“I like you a lot!”  
“R-really?”  
Yohane felt the grip she had on her candy basket loosen and tried her hardest to make sure she didn’t drop it on the ground. Mari noticed she struggled with the basket and offered to carry it for a while.  
“I like you too, Mari,” Yohane said quietly, feeling a little too shy to say it in her normal voice.   
“Aww, I’m glad you do too!”  
Once Mari and Yohane had to go separate ways to their houses, Mari told her,  
“Help yourself to as much candy as you want when you go home! You deserve it. Just make sure you don’t get sick, though!”  
As Yohane waved goodbye, she didn’t even care how contradictory Mari’s words were. After how long they knew each other, she didn’t expect their confessions to be so quick and anticlimactic, but it did give her a feeling of relief that they finally confirmed their love for each other.


	6. Chapter 6

That night, Yohane sat on the bed with her legs under the covers while her arms and torso remained uncovered. She was hunched over slightly, playing around with some of the features of her phone. Once she closed out of the game she had open, she checked her text messages. Since Mari was the only one in her contacts, the message history she had with her was the only thing that showed up. She focused closely on Mari’s name, which had purple hearts surrounding it.   
Yohane decided to send her a message asking if she was still awake. It took a few minutes of waiting, but eventually the indication that Mari was typing appeared on the screen.   
“I’m here! Do you need something?”  
“I was just wondering…When you said you liked me, what did you mean by that?”  
“I meant that I love you a whole bunch!”  
Yohane gave her phone a timid smile upon reading Mari’s last message, but Mari was still being a bit too vague for her. Wanting to get a better understanding of the situation, Yohane asked her,  
“Do you love me like a friend or like a girlfriend?”  
Yohane’s heart beat loudly in her chest as she awaited Mari’s response. She never experienced something like this before, so she hoped that she was handling the situation correctly. Fortunately, she appeared to be doing it just fine. Yohane let out a sharp exhale as Mari’s next message finished typing.  
“Like a girlfriend!”  
She didn’t think it was possible, but these three words made her heart beat even faster. Being someone’s girlfriend was a huge deal, especially for someone like Yohane who never experienced love like this with a human before. Yohane’s next message was a simple,  
“I do too!”  
Before Yohane could continue texting with Mari, Hanamaru turned off the lights to the bedroom. Yohane whined for Hanamaru to turn the lights back on, but Hanamaru didn’t.   
“It’s late!” she scolded Yohane, “You need to get enough sleep for school tomorrow!”   
“But Hanamaru, it’s a Saturday tomorrow,” Ruby corrected her.  
Hanamaru was disappointed in herself for not remembering that it was the day before the next weekend. Still wanting to get her point across, she told Yohane,  
“Either way, humans need regular amounts of sleep or they’ll start acting strange. Go to bed.”  
Yohane sighed as she plugged her phone into the charger next to her. Although she wanted to keep talking to Mari, she didn’t want Hanamaru to get mad at her for not listening. As she fell asleep, she hugged her blanket tightly. For a while now, she made it a habit every night to scrunch up half of her blanket and wrap her arms around it in a close embrace. Having the feeling of something there with her helped her relax and fall asleep quicker.  
-  
Since Dia allowed Mari and Yohane to be able to spend time with each other without her being mad at them, the two of them did just that. For the next couple of months, they texted each other whenever they felt like asking questions, sending jokes, or just having a regular conversation.   
Sometimes, on the weekends, Mari would bring Yohane to interesting places in the city. Whenever they went out for the weekend, however, Ruby and Hanamaru would have their own fun someplace else. The two demons didn’t want to bother Mari and Yohane while they hung out together, and they wanted to have a chance to explore the city without having to take care of Yohane.   
At the beginning of December, Mari had an idea. There was an event taking place later in the month where there’d be thousands of lights around the area, and Mari believed Yohane would enjoy seeing it. Upon being invited to go see it with her, Yohane gladly accepted.   
-  
Now that everyone was on winter break, they were able to do what they liked without school getting in the way. One day at the start of the break, Chika, Riko, and You were out on a walk together. You didn’t seem to mind the cold weather, but Chika and Riko were bundled up with a bunch of layers.   
When the three of them were about to pass by a place that specialized in different types of soup, Chika suggested for them to get something there to help warm them up. Riko and You agreed, especially since none of them ate anything in a while.   
Chika was about to take a paper copy of the menu from the container outside the building, but she paused when one of the copies of the menu took itself out of there by itself. She smiled. By now, she could confirm that instances like this were because of the ghosts at the school making their way to other parts of the town. Feeling comfortable enough around them, Chika waved towards the floating menu and greeted it.   
Both Ruby and Hanamaru had a look of concern on their face, realizing that somebody noticed them.   
“It’s nice to see you again!” Chika said to them happily. “Well, I can’t, like…actually see you, but I know you’re there!”  
Riko clung onto Chika’s arm, whispering loudly to her,  
“Why are you trying to talk to the ghosts?”  
“They’re a pretty friendly duo! They like books and caterpillars and stuff like that, so I trust them,” Chika told her, not whispering back.  
Ruby smiled at Chika and Riko then looked at Hanamaru with the same smile.  
“They think we’re friendly,” she said to her, glad that these students seemed to like them, even if they couldn’t actually see what they looked like.   
You decided to join in on the conversation, saying to Ruby and Hanamaru,  
“Hey, ghosts! Maybe you could help us pick out what soups we should get!”  
Despite knowing that none of them could see the look on their faces, Ruby and Hanamaru gave You a look of confusion. If they couldn’t hear their voices or see their bodies, they had no idea how they’d do something like that for them.   
“Yeah!” Chika joined in. “If you take your menu and point it at what you think we should get, we’ll get it!”  
Now that the two demons had a way they could do something like that, Ruby waved the menu up and down excitedly to say yes to the idea. Chika raised her hand and asked them to do it for her first.   
Ruby passed the menu to Hanamaru so she could do the honors. Hanamaru thought for a moment, wanting to pick something that was suitable for someone like Chika. Once she came to a decision, she pointed the menu at the cream stew option on the menu board. Chika gasped, surprised that her idea actually worked.  
“Ooh, sure, I can get that one!”  
You raised her hand next.   
“How about me?” she asked them.   
Hanamaru had to think for a longer time this time since she knew less about You than with Chika. Eventually, she gave up on what to pick for You and pointed to a random option on the board. Somehow, she managed to point to cream stew once again. Chika and You exchanged confused looks with each other upon being given the same option.   
“I guess I can do that!” You replied with a shrug.   
“I wonder if I’ll be given something different…,” Riko chimed in.   
Hanamaru wasn’t super familiar with Riko either, but Riko gave off a certain vibe that made her think she’d want something simple like miso soup. She brought the menu over to the miso soup option and pointed to it. You and Chika stared at Riko, in awe that she was given something different than them somehow. Bowing her head, Riko said,  
“I can get that… Thank you, ghosts.”   
As the three students bought their soups, Ruby and Hanamaru realized that they wouldn’t be able to buy soups for themselves since nobody could see or hear them. Chika looked up at the menu board when she heard the floating menu smack against the board.   
“Oh, do you two want soup too? Which ones do you want?” Chika asked them with a smile.  
When Hanamaru pointed to the ones they were interested in, You returned to the counter to pay for them. The students wanted to help Ruby and Hanamaru out since they all gained trust in them now.   
-  
The night of Christmas Eve was when Mari and Yohane attended the event they planned for. All the trees in the area had various colors of lights wrapped around them, and in certain places, Christmas decorations adorned with lights and glitter were present as well. Since they were going at night, the lights contrasted well with the dark blue sky.   
Yohane was in awe at all of it. The lights were like rows of perfectly aligned stars, shining in colorful patterns to illuminate the darkness around them. Although she didn’t say it out loud, she was feeling just as passionate about this as she did with Halloween. Humans really did have enjoyable traditions, at least to her.   
As the two of them stood on the bridge in the middle of the water, they looked out at the reflection of the lights on the water’s surface. Mari thought this was a good moment to ask Yohane how she liked everything so far.  
“I like it a lot, Mari! Thank you for telling me about this,” Yohane answered happily.   
“You know…,” Mari began, taking Yohane’s hand into hers.   
Yohane’s muscles tensed up, making Mari rub the back of her hand to try to calm her down.   
“One thing couples like to do at times like this is kiss each other. Would you like to do that, Yohane?”  
Yohane quickly searched her mind, trying to remember if she knew what a kiss was. Whether it was a thing in the demon world or not, Yohane could confirm she didn’t know anything about how it worked. When Yohane told her she wanted to but wasn’t sure how, Mari turned her around and held her chin with her other hand.   
“I can show you if you want,” Mari whispered as their faces got closer.   
Yohane nodded slightly in response, unable to speak. Leaning even further forward, Mari gently pressed her lips against Yohane’s. Yohane almost short circuited at the unfamiliar sensation. It was pleasant but very new to her. Trying her best to follow what Mari was doing, Yohane also leaned forward, making the kiss go deeper. They stayed like this for a minute or so before letting go.   
Mari caught Yohane when she saw her about to fall over.   
“Are you okay, Yohane?” she asked with worry in her voice, “Did I overwhelm you?”  
Mari gasped when she heard Yohane chuckle in a sinister tone. Yohane didn’t mean for her laugh to sound evil, but she was so happy about what happened that it subconsciously came out of her.  
“I’m okay…,” Yohane replied calmly, wanting to reassure her.   
“Okay good!” Mari said with relief, still holding onto Yohane.  
-  
On Christmas morning, Dia, Kanan, and Yohane found a professionally wrapped present in their houses when they woke up. Dia and Kanan knew who sent it to them because this happened every Christmas since they became friends with Mari, but Yohane had no clue why it was there. It wasn’t until she opened the present that Yohane understood.   
Inside the wrapping paper of Yohane’s present was a box that had various holiday-themed treats and a big furry bat plushie. Yohane wondered why there was a plushie from Halloween time included in there, but when she read the card that was taped to the top of the wrapping paper, she figured it out.  
“Hey, Yohane! Don’t be scared by the strange box in your house, it’s just my present to you for Christmas! I actually bought the bat for you during Halloween but waited until now to give it to you! I hope you have a good day today and Mari Crit Miss Merry Christmas to you! ♡ -Love, Mari”  
Yohane smiled as she put the card down. Mari really liked doing kind things for her, and she appreciated every one of them. Taking her cat hair clip from her dresser, Yohane decided she wanted to give it to Mari for Christmas. She sent a text to Mari requesting for them to meet up somewhere so she could give it to her.  
-  
When Dia woke up on Christmas morning, she was met with the smell of food cooking in the kitchen. Kanan was making breakfast for the two of them, and when she heard Dia’s footsteps, she said,  
“Merry Christmas, Dia! Mari dropped off the Christmas presents for us this year if you want to open yours!”  
Telling Kanan she would go do that, Dia left the kitchen and went to open up her present. She, like Yohane, had a box with multiple items in it. The holiday treats packed inside were different than Yohane’s, however. Mari wanted to get things that specifically matched their preferences. The larger present inside Dia’s box was a book she had her eye on for a while but didn’t get to order.   
“What’d you get?” Kanan asked her as she entered the kitchen with her book in hand.   
“It was that book I was meaning to get for myself!”   
“Ohh nice!” Kanan said, “My present was something I meant to get eventually, too.”  
“Your new running shoes, right?”   
“Yep!”  
Glancing out at the window, seeing the snow and the Christmas decorations everywhere, Dia smiled. She enjoyed being able to take a break from school work and participating in events like giving and getting presents from her friends. She wasn’t sure if it was the spirit of Christmas doing this to her, but she felt extremely relaxed today.   
“Merry Christmas, Kanan,” Dia said sweetly.   
Kanan stopped what she was working on to look over at Dia. She didn’t expect Dia to say something like that, especially the way she said it, but it was a pleasant surprise. But upon further consideration, Kanan should have known Dia wasn’t the type to be constantly grumpy; she could enjoy things just as much as everyone else could.   
“Merry Christmas, Dia,” Kanan replied back, preparing the plates for both of them.


	7. Chapter 7

The start of the New Year began with a text message from Mari. Yohane didn’t end up reading it until she woke up in the morning, despite the fact that it was sent at midnight.   
“Happy New Year, Yohane! I wish the best for you this year! ♡”  
Yohane was not sure what the New Year was, but since she wanted to be nice to Mari, she replied,  
“Yes, Happy New Year! I wish the same for you!”   
When Ruby and Hanamaru woke up, Yohane asked the two demons about the New Year. Ruby was the first to respond, excitedly telling her,  
“It’s really nice! You dress up in traditional clothes and go to the shrine to send a prayer so your year can go well! It’s so pretty there…”  
Hanamaru smiled, patting Ruby’s head. Looking towards Yohane, she added,  
“Along with that, your caretakers are going to give you some extra money to spend on whatever you wish. It’s part of the New Year’s celebration!”  
Yohane thanked the two of them for giving her this information before checking the room to see where her caretakers might have placed the money. In a way, she was glad she was the last of the three of them to undergo the demon initiation process because Ruby and Hanamaru could explain things she didn’t understand. Over the last few months, she certainly did rely on them a few times for advice.   
When Yohane was about to give up on searching, Hanamaru said,  
“It’s in the top drawer of your desk.”   
Yohane glanced at her then at her desk. Of all the places she checked, she somehow never bothered to touch her desk drawers. Once she opened the top drawer, she found a red envelope and took it out to see what was inside. She was happy as she pullled the bill out of the envelope. Besides being given money for lunch at school, she had no spending money of her own. Whenever she needed money for something, her caretakers would pay for it for her. Thus, she never had to worry about it before.  
Yohane’s eyes sparkled as she closely inspected the two thousand yen bill. All of this was hers, and she could do whatever she wished with it. However, one problem she faced was figuring out what exactly she wanted to use it for. As she thought a little about it, the ding of a text message stopped her train of thought.  
“Hey, Yohane, do you want to go shopping today?”   
Yohane quickly replied with the following message.  
“Sure! What time do you want to go?”  
As the two of them established a time and place to meet up, Yohane was excited. She couldn’t wait to spend time with Mari and get herself something nice to celebrate the New Year.   
-  
At the designated time, Mari and Yohane found each other at the front of the first place they wanted to shop at. It was a store that specialized in various types of jewelry and accessories. Entering the store, Yohane’s eyes didn’t know what to focus on. The walls were covered in different necklaces, headbands, hair clips, and more.   
One item that caught Yohane’s attention was a necklace with a music note on it which seemed to be multicolored. When Mari saw what Yohane was looking at, she took it off the rack for her and let her observe it up close. The color of the music note changed after a minute of being in Mari’s palm, becoming a bluish green hue.  
Mari pointed to the music note necklace in her hand and told Yohane,  
“This is a mood necklace! It changes color based on your mood!”   
“See, right now, this teal color means that I’m feeling flirty,” Mari added with a wink.   
When Mari handed the necklace to Yohane and held her hands underneath Yohane’s, she was surprised how quickly it changed from bluish green to purple. According to the mood necklace’s chart, purple indicated excitement.  
“Oh, Yohane, you’re excited!”  
Yohane gasped, realizing that the mood necklace perfectly matched how she was feeling. She was not only delighted to learn about such a cool concept for a piece of jewelry, but she was also cheerful and full of energy because she was spending time with Mari again.  
“I am!” Yohane exclaimed.   
Now that she experienced the power of the mood necklace, it interested her more than ever.   
“Whoa, this necklace is so cool…,” she added, “I think I want it!”   
Mari smiled, making her way to the counter to start paying for it. However, Yohane jumped in front of her to stop her. Now that she had money for the New Year, Yohane wanted to buy it herself. As Yohane came up to the counter, she paid for the necklace. It only took five hundred yen out of her two thousand yen allowance.   
Once it was paid for, Yohane wore it right away. The music note changed from purple to a dark blue, which signified that she calmed down and simply felt happy instead of excited.   
-  
At the shrine, Chika and Kanan had a conversation with each other. Although Riko and You were normally with Chika, especially for events like this, they both had to do other things at the time Chika was able to go, so Chika went by herself. She was glad that Kanan was here so she wasn’t alone.   
The two of them simultaneously sent their prayers to the shrine once they stopped talking. Chika spoke up about something that was on her mind when they finished doing this.   
“You know, something really cool happened to me last month!”  
Curious about what it was, Kanan asked,  
“Really? What happened?”   
“You know those two ghosts Riko and You and I kept finding at the school?”  
Kanan nodded, wanting Chika to tell her more details.  
“Yeah?”   
“I found them in the town! They were trying to get some soup and they helped us pick out which type of soup to eat! You and I were given the same choice, though…” Chika’s last sentence ended with a chuckle.  
“They must really like that type of soup! I can definitely understand the feeling of liking a food that much,” Kanan said, chuckling back.   
“Happy New Year, Kanan!” Chika exclaimed cheerfully.  
Kanan was a little surprised by Chika’s sudden burst of energy, but the smile on her face didn’t vanish. Having something like this said to her reminded her of Christmas, and remembering the time Dia felt truly at peace for a day was a pleasant memory to relive. In a tone similar to the one she had on Christmas Day, Kanan responded,  
“Happy New Year, Chika.”  
-  
Speaking of Dia, it was her birthday today. As a demon, she didn’t truly have a birthday, but when Kanan and Mari asked her when her birthday was, this was the day she told them. Her chosen birthday just so happened to be on the same day as New Year’s Day, and although she wouldn’t admit it out loud, she really missed Kanan and wanted her to come back to the house as soon as possible.   
Dia almost fell out of her seat when she heard the door open because Kanan returned home.   
“I’m sorry it took so long, Dia! There was a long line at the bakery,” Kanan said, placing a bag down on the kitchen table.   
“Did they run out of the flavor I wanted?”   
As Kanan took a small box out of the bag, she shook her head.  
“Nope, they still had a few matcha cupcakes left when it was my turn in line!”  
Dia was relieved to hear that. When she entered the kitchen, she watched as Kanan carefully placed the cupcake onto a plate for Dia and covered the cupcake with a plastic dome since she told her she wanted to eat it after dinner.   
Kanan wished Dia both a happy birthday and a happy New Year.   
-  
Taking the time to relax together, Mari and Yohane sat next to each other outside, their bodies close to each other’s. It probably wasn’t the best idea for them to sit in the snow, but they both seemed to be fine with it. Changing their previous subject, Mari asked Yohane,  
“Hey, Yohane, what do you wanna do over the summer?”   
Yohane’s mood necklace changed to an orange color, which indicated nervousness. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stay for the summer because she needed to return to the demon world once the school year ended, but she had no clue how to explain that to someone like Mari.   
“Ah, Mari…I’m sorry to say this, but I won’t be around for the summer,” she answered, deciding to keep her response vague.  
Mari’s brows furrowed. It was disappointing to hear that Yohane would only be around for a few more months. Wondering what the reason was, Mari questioned her about it.   
“Oh! Where do you have to go?”   
Yohane gulped nervously, trying to search her brain once again for a good way to answer the question without giving too much information. After a while, Yohane mumbled,  
“I’m going to be moving away once the school year ends.”   
“Ah, I see! So you’ll be in a new city! Do you know which one you’re moving to?”   
It was times like this that Yohane wished Mari wasn’t such a curious individual. It was getting increasingly difficult to dodge her questions. Not sure what to reply, Yohane said,  
“I honestly don’t know.”   
“Oh, I get it! Your parents haven’t told you where it is yet!”  
Yohane knew this wasn’t the truth, but she agreed with it anyway. Mari thought it was interesting that Yohane didn’t know where she was going to move, but she didn’t want to question the reasoning behind her lack of information.   
The color of the music note on Yohane’s necklace turned a light blue, which suggested that she felt upset. Mari noticed this and asked her what was wrong. Yohane, feeling guilty about lying to Mari, solemnly replied,  
“I can’t lie like this to you anymore, Mari.”   
Mari gave her a confused look, wondering what Yohane supposedly lied to her about. Squeezing her hands together, Yohane let out a deep exhale and confessed,  
“Mari, I’m…a member of the demon world.”  
Mari looked slightly confused.   
“What?”  
“I’m not really a human, Mari…I’m a demon disguising as one.”  
Yohane shut her eyes tightly, preparing herself for the worst case scenario. There was the possibility of Mari telling Dia about this and breaking up with her over it, but thankfully, Yohane’s concerns probably weren’t going to come true based on the look on Mari’s face.  
Her mouth was wide open but in a smiling manner, and her eyes glowed with interest.   
“Yohane, that’s…so awesome!”  
Yohane fell into the snow from how surprised Mari’s response made her. She was expecting Mari to be upset with her, but instead, Mari thought it was wonderful that she was a demon. However, thinking about it a little more, Yohane should have realized that Mari would have reacted like this. Mari wasn’t the type to get upset about these type of things.   
Pulling Yohane’s arm to help her get out of the snow, Mari wanted to ask her some questions about being a demon. Once Yohane was sitting upright again, Mari’s questioning began.   
“What’s it like being a demon, Yohane?”   
“Well, we’re similar to humans, but we have a different type of lifestyle than humans do…and when we’re not disguised as humans, we have horns, a tail, and a different type of outfit.”   
Mari stared at Yohane, in awe from just those words alone.   
“What are some things demons do?”  
For a while, Mari and Yohane followed a pattern: Mari would ask Yohane something about demons and Yohane would answer her in a long-winded fashion. No matter what Yohane said, Mari’s eagerness to learn still remained. Yohane’s necklace turned pink for embarrassment somewhere along the way. Once Mari had no more questions for her, Yohane warned her,  
“Please don’t tell anybody else about this, especially not Dia.”   
Giving Yohane the hand signal of “yes, sir!”, Mari replied,  
“Of course! I won’t tell anybody.”   
-  
After Dia ate her birthday cupcake, she chose to take a nap on the couch. Kanan waved her hand in front of her face to check if she was awake, and when she realized she wasn’t, she found a blanket to place over her body. Kanan exhaled with relief, glad that she was able to balance celebrating New Year’s Day and Dia’s birthday without much of an issue.  
“Chika told me that she saw two ghosts when she was in town…they like soup,” Kanan said to herself, pretending she was having a conversation with Dia.   
“Yep, she also told me Yohane was able to speak to them when they were at school.”  
“They sound pretty cool, don’t they?”   
Kanan returned to the kitchen to discard the trash on the kitchen table, wondering if Dia was able to hear any of that during her sleep. Dia didn’t move an inch as she talked, however, so she assumed she didn’t hear any of it. Maybe she’d tell her later when she was awake, Kanan thought to herself.


	8. Chapter 8

Any student that saw Mari on the first day back from winter break could tell that something made her extremely happy. She had always been a cheerful person, but the extra pep in her step and her cheerful humming today hinted that she was happier than ever before. No one bothered to ask her what caused her to be like this, though. They were too busy focusing on their schoolwork now that they were no longer on break.   
When Mari found Yohane in the hallway before school, she gave her a big warm hug. The hug surprised Yohane at first, but she eventually hugged her back with a force much weaker than Mari’s. Mari gave Yohane’s forehead a small kiss, surprising Yohane once again.  
“Did something happen today, Mari?” Yohane asked, curious about what caused her to receive so much affection.  
“Nope! I’m just thinking about something that’s gonna happen a month from now,” Mari answered, petting Yohane’s head.   
Ruby and Hanamaru watched quietly as all of this happened in front of them, and although Yohane couldn’t see their faces while she was in Mari’s embrace, she could tell that they had the biggest grins on their face. Yohane thought they would be used to stuff like this by now, but apparently they weren’t.   
Getting a little embarrassed, Yohane let go of Mari, and Mari shortly followed suit. She apologized profusely for getting so affectionate, hoping that she didn’t overwhelm Yohane. Yohane was fine with it, though. It was just Ruby’s and Hanamaru’s looks of amusement that caused her to let go.   
Once Mari felt better about the situation, she asked Yohane,  
“Hey, do you wanna come over to my house for dinner tonight?”  
Yohane thought for a moment, then turned her head towards Ruby and Hanamaru. In a voice that was unfortunately loud enough for Mari to hear, Yohane asked Hanamaru,  
“Do you think I should go?”   
Mari tilted her head in confusion but brought it back up once she figured out what was going on. During Yohane’s explanation of the demon world, she mentioned two demon friends that humans weren’t able to see or hear. Looking in the direction Ruby and Hanamaru appeared to be at, Mari asked them,  
“Oh, are you her friends?”   
Yohane’s eye twitched since she realized she never told Ruby or Hanamaru that Mari found out about the three of them being demons. Hoping they wouldn’t be mad at her, Yohane told Mari,  
“Yes, these are my friends!”   
“Oh! Then they can come too!”  
Hanamaru’s eyes widened and sparkled upon Mari’s response. If Mari thought giving one person a whole batch of cookies was perfectly fine months back, she could safely assume that Mari would have a ton of food at her house. Grabbing Yohane’s wrist, Hanamaru shook her arm a little.   
“Say yes! We want to go!” she told Yohane as Ruby agreed and anticipated her response.   
When Yohane told Mari yes, Ruby and Hanamaru cheered for her.   
-  
Riko was slightly frightened when she saw Kanan coming her way, but Kanan had a friendly look on her face as she got close enough to Riko. She could sense that Riko was worried about why she was confronting her and wanted to make her feel as comfortable as possible. For Riko, it wasn’t that Kanan was a bad person. She just knew that when older students came to talk to her, there was usually a reason for it.  
Waving at her, Kanan said a simple hi. Riko waved slowly back at Kanan, asking her what she wanted to talk to about. Kanan, still smiling at Riko, told her,  
“Chika told me about the friends you guys made over the break.”   
“Oh! Y-yes, we gained the trust of the ghosts we’ve encountered at the school…”  
“They sound like pretty nice people! Maybe I can meet them one day,” Kanan told Riko with a wink.  
Riko was already nervously playing with her fingers when Kanan first came up to her, but it increased in intensity upon Kanan wanting to see the ghosts.   
She felt relief when Kanan gave her a kind goodbye and left. At least the topic wasn’t something serious. Riko planned to let You know that Chika told Kanan about the ghosts so she wasn’t out of the loop.   
-  
During today’s class, You was in the president’s office with Dia, helping her organize papers. She normally wouldn’t do something like this, but when Dia requested her assistance and let You skip class in exchange for helping her, she quickly volunteered.   
“Thank you for helping me so far,” Dia said calmly as she put a few papers into one of the many stacks of papers on her desk.   
“Aw, it’s no problem! Thank you for letting me skip class for this!” You replied, sifting through a few papers and separating them into two piles next to her on the floor.   
“I don’t normally encourage students to miss out on important classwork, but I don’t think I could have dealt with all of this on my own.”   
“I totally understand that! Though now I’m wondering…Why did you ask me instead of Chika or Riko?”  
“Because,” Dia explained, “If I asked Chika, she wouldn’t get much done, and if I asked Riko, she’d refuse to do it since she wouldn’t be willing enough to skip class.”  
“Yeah, I get that! Well, I’m glad you chose me,” You replied with a wink.   
Dia didn’t know why You winked at her, but she didn’t question it. She was just glad that someone was able to be there to lighten her work load.   
-  
Yohane hoped that Mari gave her the correct address because she didn’t expect her to direct her to a large hotel. Ruby and Hanamaru were hoping the same thing, but they suggested for the three of them to enter the hotel to make sure it was the right location.   
They were amazed at the sight they saw once they entered the hotel. It was very spacious and elegant, and it really didn’t give off the vibe of anyone living here. Regardless, Yohane told the person at the counter she was looking for Mari. She was relieved when she was told that Mari was in her room upstairs.   
Mari was delighted to hear knocking on her bedroom door. She sprung up off the bed to open the door for her, excited as could be.   
“Hi, everyone! Our dinner is almost finished! Once I get a message back from the kitchen, I’ll lead you all there!” she told the three of them as she sat back down on the bed.  
Mari tapped the mattress and gestured for Yohane to come sit down with her on the bed. She pulled Yohane closer to her once she did, pressing her cheek against hers for a moment.   
Suddenly, a buzzing sound filled the air. It was Mari’s phone, informing her that the chefs finished making their food. Once again, she sprung to her feet, urging Yohane to follow her. Ruby and Hanamaru followed the two of them as well, looking forward to see what awaited them in the kitchen.  
“Oh my god…,” Yohane whispered to herself as she entered the kitchen.   
On a large table in the center of the room, its surface was covered with various types of food. All of them were in family size containers, and the foods inside them varied from manicotti to sweet potatoes to macaroni and cheese. Yohane couldn’t even process all of the foods she saw in front of her. It looked as though Mari had prepared a feast for a crowd of people rather than a dinner for four people.   
Ruby and Hanamaru zoomed past Yohane to get to their seats. Mari clapped her hands when she saw how quickly two of the chairs moved backward. Looking at Yohane, Mari asked her sweetly,  
“Are you ready to eat, Yohane?”   
Yohane nodded slowly, sitting herself down next to Ruby. Ruby and Hanamaru already began putting food onto their plates and eating as Yohane settled into the cushioned seat. Yohane chose not to eat lunch at school today, so she definitely had good reason to start eating along with the two demons, but for some reason, she felt like she couldn’t.   
Mari gave Yohane a worried look, wondering why she wasn’t eating any of the food. When she asked Yohane about it, Yohane crossed her arms underneath the table, trying not to admit that she was embarrassed to start eating in front of Ruby and Hanamaru.   
“I’m trying to determine whether I want anything or not…,” Yohane said quietly.   
Mari was confused. All of them came together to eat, so it wouldn’t make sense for Yohane to come all this way and have nothing.   
“Why wouldn’t you want anything, sweetie?”   
Not sure what type of excuse she could make to defend herself, Yohane decided to confess how she truly felt.   
“I’m a little worried about eating in front of Ruby and Hanamaru…”  
With an annoyed expression and an unusually serious voice, Mari glanced towards the two demons and scolded them.   
“You two better not judge Yohane when she eats, okay?”   
Swallowing their food nervously, they nodded frantically at Mari, despite the fact that she couldn’t see them do it. Yohane quickly let her know that Ruby and Hanamaru were going to obey her wishes.   
Finally feeling brave enough to start eating, Yohane didn’t hold back.  
As she began eating, she learned how amazing Mari’s food tasted. To her, it felt as though each food she tried had the perfect temperature and consistency for her taste buds. Mari giggled as she watched Yohane and the two invisible demons enjoying themselves. Mari ate along with them, of course, but she was much calmer than the trio.   
Now that Yohane was able to visit Mari’s house and try the food she prepared for them, she felt as though she loved Mari more than ever. She would never understand how such an amazing person entered her life, but she didn’t really want to question it. Right now, she just wanted to focus on the wonderful food.  
-  
Yohane lied down on the couch in another room, curled up on her side so that her backside was the only thing Mari, Ruby, or Hanamaru could see. After all that she ate, she just wanted to nap until she was back to normal. Ruby and Hanamaru asked Yohane from across the room if she was okay, but Yohane didn’t answer them.   
Mari came up to the couch, standing close to where Yohane was resting. She then got on one knee and rubbed Yohane’s back to try to help her feel better.  
“Hey, Yohane…sweetie…”  
Yohane mumbled indistinctly, letting herself be physically comforted by Mari. When a floating napkin touched Mari’s shoulder, she turned around to read a message that was written on it.  
“Did Yohane lose control?” was all it said.   
“I see it more like she enjoyed herself too much. Let’s let her rest here, okay?” Mari answered gently.  
Ruby waved the napkin up and down to act as though she was nodding in agreement.   
When Mari returned to the table where Hanamaru was sitting, she noticed a pen and some stray napkins spread out on the tabletop. WIth this and the napkin with the message Ruby showed her, Mari felt the need to say,  
“If you two want to write with me, I can go get you some paper instead of using napkins!”   
Ruby shook the napkin once again to agree with the offer. Mari left the room for a moment to come back with an open ream of computer paper. Sitting down next to Hanamaru, Mari slid the paper towards her so she could write with it. Hanamaru’s first message on the paper was the following.   
“Do you love Yohane?”   
Hanamaru slid the paper towards Mari, who wrote a response to her even though she could speak out loud to them.   
“Yep! I love her a ton!”   
“Is there any reason why you gained so much interest in her?”  
“Whether she’s shy or confident, she’s such a cute little sweetie! I love being around her!”   
“What do you like most about her?”  
“I love how she gets excited about things she likes! Her happiness is so innocent…”  
“I see. Thank you for looking out for Yohane. It seems like you’re treating her pretty well.”  
“Aww, it’s no problem! Whenever I can help someone, it makes me feel better!”   
“What do you mean by that?”  
Mari paused for a moment, staring at those six words. No one asked her about something like this before. Since the first piece of paper was filled with their writing, Mari gave herself a new page.  
“I like helping people because it makes me feel like I have a purpose in life!”   
“That’s nice, but you still have a purpose regardless of what you do for people.”   
“Really? Do you know what that would be?”   
“Just by existing as yourself in this world, you bring meaning to other people’s lives. That would be different if you weren’t around.”  
“Whoa, you’re a very wise spirit! What is your name?”  
“Hanamaru. The one with the napkin is Ruby.”  
“Oh, those are both nice names! Hey, Hanamaru, do you think we should check on Yohane?”  
“Yes, I think it’s been long enough.”  
Once Mari returned to where Yohane was resting, she gently shook her awake. Yohane turned her head to look at her with very sleepy-looking eyes. Mari giggled, stroking her cheek with her thumb.  
“How was your nap?” Mari asked with a low gentle tone.  
Yohane mumbled some unclear words at her, shutting her eyes once again. Mari gave her a small smile as she let go of her cheek and let her continue to rest.  
“She might need to stay with me for the night,” Mari told Ruby and Hanamaru with a wink and a giggle.  
“You two can stay with me, too! Since this is a hotel, we have enough beds for all of you! However, I’m going to give Yohane a special offer when she wakes up,” she added.


	9. Chapter 9

Yohane knew the celebration of Valentine’s Day was today because Mari explained the holiday to her a week ago while gushing about how excited she was for it. However, she wasn’t prepared for Mari to be in the hallway and welcome her with a gigantic teddy bear. It was about as tall as Mari herself, and she had to lift it up high to make sure its feet didn’t touch the floor.   
“There’s going to be more where this came from!” Mari stated excitedly, handing the teddy bear to her.  
Yohane struggled to carry it, but she tried her best to hold it like Mari did. Mari giggled, stroking the top of Yohane’s head. She really seemed to take delight in giving Yohane gifts today. Yohane was a bit concerned about what Mari meant by there being more for her later on, but she couldn’t do much about it but wait and see what she got from her later on.   
On Yohane’s desk was a large heart-shaped container of chocolates, a thick bundle of flowers, and five cards on top of the chocolates. Ruby and Hanamaru watched quietly as Yohane began opening the cards.   
“Hey, Yohane! Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetie!”  
“Even if you don’t feel like you have a purpose in the world, you absolutely do! Your friend Hanamaru told me that! HVD!”   
“I love you so much!!! It’ll be sad to see you go at the end of the year, but I want to enjoy my time with you as much as possible until then! HVD!”   
The third message reminded Yohane that she and Mari were only going to be together for three more months. She was able to ignore this thought for a while now, but Mari writing it in one of her messages to her quickly brought it back into her mind. When Yohane’s body froze in place, Hanamaru and Ruby were worried about her.   
“Yohane, are you okay?”  
Upon hearing Ruby’s voice, Yohane shook herself out of her trance, nodding at the two demons.   
“Yes, I’m alright…I just read an emotional message, that’s all,” she said, placing the cards back into their envelopes.   
Yohane decided to save the other two cards for when she was in a better emotional state to read them. Placing the chocolates and flowers under her desk, Yohane prepared herself for class.  
-  
When Dia found Yohane carrying her gigantic teddy bear, she gave her a look of disgust. She was even more annoyed when she saw that Ruby was carrying a heart-shaped container of chocolates and Hanamaru was carrying the bundle of flowers.   
“Yoshiko,” was all Dia needed to say to her to get her muscles to stiffen.   
“Y-yes, Dia?”  
“Why do you have this large bear?”   
“Oh! It was a gift from Mari this morning,” Yohane replied, hoping that Dia wouldn’t be too upset about this.  
Dia crossed her arms. She knew Mari was the type to shower people she liked with gifts, especially on a day like Valentine’s Day, but the size of this teddy bear was unusual, even for Mari. With a firmer tone than before, Dia said,  
“I see. Well, make sure it doesn’t interfere with any of the other students getting work done. Can you do that?”  
“Yes, I can! I’ve been as careful as possible with it today,” Yohane told her, feeling less nervous now that she realized Dia seemed to be fine with her having something like this.   
However, she soon became concerned for herself once again when Dia spoke to her in the demon language. She scolded Yohane for having Ruby and Hanamaru carry her things for her and warned her that other students could notice floating items in the air and get scared by it. Yohane kept this in mind, but she wasn’t sure what else she could do with the flowers and chocolates if her hands were occupied with the teddy bear. In the demon language, Yohane asked Dia what she could do to carry them, and Dia told her she could have a student help carry them for her.  
No longer speaking the demon language, Yohane audibly considered her advice as all of them parted ways.  
-  
Dia looked visibly grumpy when she found Kanan before lunch, but Kanan was smiling and hiding something behind her back when the two of them were standing in front of each other.   
“I don’t really like Valentine’s Day that much to be honest with you, Kanan,” Dia grumbled to her.  
“Are you sure about that?” Kanan asked gently, revealing what she had been hiding from her.  
Dia gasped when a small red teddy bear holding a bag of chocolates entered her line of sight. Kanan bought this for Dia the day before Valentine’s Day because she wanted to be able to give her something for the occasion but didn’t want to give her too much. She also couldn’t afford as much for an event like this like Mari could.   
Dia had a surprised expression on her face as Kanan handed it to her.   
“Oh…Thank you, Kanan!”  
Realizing she didn’t currently have something to give her in return, Dia added,  
“I will have something for you later today.”   
“I’m looking forward to it,” Kanan replied, casually placing a hand on Dia’s shoulder.  
Kanan quickly took her hand away because she didn’t want to touch Dia if she wasn’t okay with it, but Dia let her know that it was fine for her to do that.  
“Actually, would you be able to do that again?” she asked her curiously.   
Kanan smiled at her. She liked when Dia brought her guard down a little and felt more willing to request things like this. Moving so she stood next to Dia, Kanan wrapped her arm around her back and held onto her shoulder. They stayed like this as they walked together to their classrooms.   
-  
Watching other students roaming around with plushies and chocolates and flowers and balloons all over the place made Ruby and Hanamaru feel like they wanted to join in on the fun. However, Yohane and Dia were the only people that didn’t see them as silent invisible beings, so they couldn’t think of anybody that would be willing to help them out.  
Getting an idea, Ruby excitedly said to Hanamaru,  
“Hanamaru, we should do things for each other!”   
“I’d like that!” Hanamaru replied without hesitation.   
The two of them chose to gather gifts for each other while Yohane was in class. Normally, they’d be in class with her, but today was one of those days that they chose to just hope Yohane would be fine on her own so they could do things by themselves.   
Ruby’s first plan of action was to go to the front office of the school. Usually, next to the receptionist’s desk, there’d be a big bowl of candies, and Ruby had taken pieces from it in the past. When the woman at the desk left to go to the bathroom, Ruby reached over the desk to grab five pieces for Hanamaru. She wondered whether she should have taken more, but she didn’t want to raise any suspicion.   
Meanwhile, Hanamaru went out to the P.E. field to gather flowers for Ruby. She made sure to pick out multiple types of flowers to make the arrangement more interesting. She didn’t stop until she had a handful of ten small flowers that were mostly yellow, white, or pink in color. Since Hanamaru couldn’t hide what she had in her hands from curious students, she had to hope that they either didn’t notice her or didn’t care about the independently moving bunch of flowers hovering over the field.   
When Ruby and Hanamaru found each other, Ruby was the first to show Hanamaru what she got for her. With the strongest voice she could muster, she exclaimed,  
“I-I got this for you, Hanamaru! It’s the candy you like from the front office!”   
Hanamaru was touched that Ruby remembered how much she enjoyed eating those months ago. When she revealed her Valentine’s gift for Ruby, she was glad to hear Ruby gasp in delight.  
“Hanamaru, they’re so pretty! Thank you so much!”   
As the two of them took each other’s presents, they came together for a hug. While in the embrace, Hanamaru asked Ruby,  
“Hey, do you remember that one thing we saw some people doing?”   
Ruby shook her head, not exactly sure what she was referring to. Hanamaru leaned forward to kiss her forehead a few times, hoping that doing it would show Ruby what she was talking about. Ruby giggled as she felt Hanamaru’s lips lightly touching her head.   
“Oh yeah, I remember now!”  
Leaning forward, Ruby planted a small, quick kiss on Hanamaru’s cheek. Hanamaru chuckled, thinking that the way Ruby did it so nervously was adorable. Both of them enjoyed being able to spend Valentine’s Day together, especially since they didn’t have to worry about other students watching them be affectionate with each other.  
-  
Chika seemed unusually cheerful for someone who hadn’t received anything for Valentine’s Day. However, it was because she enjoyed seeing other people happy, and honestly, she didn’t feel like she really needed anything from it anyway.  
Riko and You asked her if she was alright with not getting the same type of gifts other students got, and Chika happily replied,  
“Yeah! It’s more fun for me to watch than actually get something!”  
“Though there’s one thing I’d like to have if someone can get it for me…,” Chika added, rubbing her chin.  
Focusing closely on Chika’s face in anticipation, Riko and You wanted to know what it was she had her eye on.   
“What’s that?”  
“What would you like, Chika?”  
“I kinda want one of those donuts the school store was selling,” Chika answered, scratching the back of her head as she stuck out her tongue in a silly manner.   
Riko and You looked at each other for a moment before leaving in opposite directions to try to get to the school store before the other. Chika smiled before leaving to go about her own business.   
The next time Chika saw the two of them, both of them were short of breath and holding bags in their hands. Chika blinked at the bags a few times before looking up at them and asking,  
“Did you both get one for me?”  
Riko and You nodded in unison. Pulling the two of them into a group hug, Chika said,  
“Well, let’s go share these, then! You two worked so hard to get them that you deserve to eat some of it too!”  
Riko and You exchanged some embarrassed looks at each other as they let Chika guide them to another room to start sharing the donuts together.  
-  
At bedtime, Yohane hoisted her teddy bear onto the bed. It took up a good amount of mattress space, but there was still enough room for Yohane to sleep with it. Covering her body and part of the teddy bear with the blanket, she latched onto it, feeling comforted by the soft sensation. The cuddly limbs and body of the teddy bear would never be the same as the warm, plush body of Mari, but it was close enough to it, and it still comforted Yohane enough to fall asleep with ease.   
Yohane had another dream about Mari, but it wasn’t about the two of them in the demon world. Instead, they were standing in a fountain and holding each other’s hands.   
“Will we have to separate soon?” Mari asked, her voice sounding as though it was echoing.   
“Yes, unfortunately we will,” Yohane replied, her voice also echoing.  
“Is there anything you’d like to tell me before we have to part ways?”  
“Mari, with short blond hair as radiant as the sun’s rays and light green eyes as relaxing as an open meadow, I love you with all my heart and soul, and I want to do whatever I can to see you as long as possible.”  
Being in the dream world made such unusally poetic words feel completely normal to Mari and Yohane.   
“Hey guys, is it cool if you get out of the fountain? I want to throw a coin in there to make a wish, but I don’t want to hit either of you with it,” Kanan’s voice asked the two of them from nowhere.  
With that cryptic message from Kanan, Yohane awoke from her slumber at a time that was just a little earlier than the time Yohane usually woke up.   
She glanced over at Ruby and Hanamaru, who were still asleep in a corner of the room. They were resting against each other as they slept, which Yohane thought was kind of cute. Not wanting to wake them up, Yohane picked up her phone to check if she got any new messages.   
Apparently, one message sent in the middle of the night but didn’t make a sound, at least not a sound that any of them heard in their sleep. Mari must have woken up in the middle of the night with something on her mind that she wanted to share with Yohane, and Yohane didn’t expect to ever hear Mari say what she said in this message.


	10. Chapter 10

The message Yohane never expected from Mari was the following:  
“Yohane, I’m really worried…Do you think I’m doing okay as a girlfriend?”   
Yohane replied to her as soon as possible, almost making a few typos in the process.  
“Yes, you’re doing very well! Did anything in particular worry you about this?”   
Somehow, Mari was able to start answering her less than a minute after Yohane sent her last message. Very surprised by this, Yohane didn’t take her eyes off the phone screen while it showed that Mari was typing.  
“Ahh, I’m really glad about that! And I’m not sure…Is it okay if I explain something personal to you?”  
Yohane let her know that it was perfectly fine, watching carefully as Mari started typing again. For some reason, she wound up typing for a long time. Usually Mari’s messages were very quick and simple, but it didn’t seem like it’d be like that this time.   
“I was really happy when I met my friends Dia and Kanan, but when they started getting really interested in each other, I felt lonely. I wanted to find someone I clicked with just as much as Kanan and Dia did with each other, but people thought I was too energetic and overbearing. When I first met you, I saw something in you that screamed “she’ll be able to accept me for who I am!” and since then, I became more and more in love with you the more I got to know you.”   
It was upsetting to Yohane to know that Mari felt so lonely before she met her, but she was glad to hear that she was able to help Mari so greatly. Spending a good amount of time trying to figure out how to respond to her, Yohane wanted to make sure that Mari understood how much she appreciated her.   
“I see…Well, I love you for who you are, so you’re right about me accepting you for that. But I don’t just accept you, I really enjoy you!”  
Concerned that her last message sounded unclear, Yohane sent another text to clarify what she meant.  
“By that, I mean I really enjoy being around you and appreciate what you’ve done for me! It’s more than I’m used to, but I like it a lot.”  
“Ahhh, thank you so much, Yohane! You’re so sweet to me! Hey, do you think we can meet up somewhere together later?”  
“Of course! Where would you want to meet?”  
As Yohane decided a destination with Mari, Ruby and Hanamaru woke up and wondered what she was doing. Both of them sleepily hovered towards her, standing over her to try to see what was happening. When Yohane realized they were right behind her, she jumped and almost dropped her phone in the process.  
“D-don’t do that to me!” she stuttered, trying to straighten herself up.  
Once Yohane recovered from the sudden scare, she calmly added,   
“Is it okay if you two do some stuff on your own for a while? Mari and I are going to meet up somewhere so I can help her out.”  
Ruby and Hanamaru nodded, holding each other’s hands while they did so.   
-  
Mari wasn’t acting like her usual self when Yohane found her. She didn’t want to take her eyes off the ground, and she kept her arms pressed stiffly against her body. This unusual body language worried Yohane. She had never seen her look this miserable before, and seeing her like this gave her the burning urge to want to help her out.   
“Mari, I’m here!” Yohane called out to her.   
Mari glanced up at her for a moment before quickly bringing her head back down.   
“Hi, Yohane,” she said, struggling to muster a cheerful tone.  
“Are you okay?” Yohane asked her, wanting to know how she could help.  
“I’m just really nervous…,” Mari answered quietly.   
Getting closer to Mari, Yohane asked what was causing her to be so nervous.  
“I’m good at helping others, but I can’t help myself. I want to ask for your help with something, but I’m too afraid to do it.”   
Taking Mari’s hand, Yohane had one more question for her.   
“What do you need my help with?”  
Mari was glad that Yohane wanted to help, and although she was still nervous, Yohane’s encouragement made her want to try confessing what she wanted to. With her heart thumping loudly in her chest, Mari replied,  
“I don’t know how the demon world works, but…No, it’s really selfish of me to say this, I’m sorry…”  
“No, no, I’m sure it’s not selfish! Go ahead and say it, Mari,” Yohane told her, holding her hand a little tighter than before.  
“Would you be able to stay with me even after the year ends? Even if you have to be invisible like Ruby and Hanamaru, I’d still enjoy it! I-I’m sorry, I don’t want to get in your way like this…”  
When Mari dipped her head down further and started sniffling, Yohane tried to wrap her arms around Mari as fast as she could. If someone like Mari was crying, she knew this was a big deal for her.  
“It’s okay, Mari! Really, it’s okay,” Yohane said, squeezing her as hard as she could.  
Mari’s voice cracked as she spoke.  
“I-it’s just…You’ve helped me so much and…I-I’m not ready for you to disappear!”  
Yohane rubbed her back as she rubber her cheek against Mari’s shoulder. Although it was upsetting to hear Mari like this, she was trying her hardest to make sure she could be there for Mari without getting emotional herself.   
“D-did you read all my cards on Valentine’s Day?” Mari asked in a voice almost difficult to make out.  
“Your cards? I read most of them, but there were two I didn’t get to open. They’re in my bag right now if you want me to read them, though.”  
“C-could you read them? One of them was something important…”  
Letting go of the hug, Yohane unzipped her backpack to find the unopened cards. As she read them, Yohane felt her emotions begin to take over her.   
“Yohane, you and your friends have helped me so much this year! Thank you for what you’ve done for me! HVD!”   
“If I can be serious here, being around you has really changed my life for the better…It seems like I’ve only been helping you, but honestly, you’ve helped me out just as much. Happy Valentine’s Day.”  
After reading the last message, Yohane let out a small squeak as she tried to fight back tears. She was already distressed because of Mari crying, but reading something that said she helped Mari just as much as she helped her brought it all over the edge.   
As she let quiet tears fall down her face, Mari noticed them and pulled Yohane into her arms. Despite both of them struggling to speak while crying, they said to each other,  
“I love you, Yohane…”  
“I love you too, Mari…”  
-  
Ruby and Hanamaru wanted to know why Yohane’s cheeks and nose were unusually red when they reunited with her. Not wanting to give too many details, Yohane’s answer was simply,  
“I had an emotional experience with Mari…”  
Hanamaru looked at her in open-mouthed surprise while Ruby seemed more worried than ever. Neither of them had seen Yohane cry since all of them were in the demon world, and they were very curious what caused it to happen this time. Along with this, Ruby really wanted to give Yohane a hug and did so without stopping herself. Yohane hugged her back, appreciating Ruby’s gesture of kindness.  
“Are you going to be alright, Yohane?” Hanamaru questioned.   
Yohane quietly nodded in response. Hanamaru smiled and expressed her relief before showing Yohane a bag she was holding behind her back. No one would know what was in it unless it was explained to them, but Hanamaru soon let her know about its contents.  
“Kanan doesn’t like candy, but Dia gave her some for Valentine’s Day, so she wants the three of us to eat it for her!”  
“Did you two talk to Kanan?” Yohane asked, confused as to how she was able to assign them a task.   
“Yep! We found her when she was outside and she figured out it was us when she saw the book Ruby was holding!” Hanamaru answered.   
“So she wants us to…eat her Valentine’s candy for her?” Yohane wondered out loud.  
“Yeah! It’s not a lot if we split it up between the three of us,” Ruby answered happily.  
Yohane shrugged. Ruby and Hanamaru were most likely going to eat most of it anyway, so it didn’t matter much to her if she ate one or two pieces. Maybe it was because of Mari’s influence, but Yohane became much more willing to eat extra food since she started giving it to her.   
-  
“Kanan, did you already eat all of your candy?” Dia asked, giving Kanan an incredulous look.   
Kanan gave her a thumbs up as she responded with a simple,  
“Yep!”  
“I’m glad you liked it that much,” Dia said with a slight smile.  
Kanan wasn’t normally the type to eat candy, so Dia found it surprising that she not only ate all of it, but finished it by the next day. Although she knew that Kanan didn’t truly eat any of it, she appreciated that Kanan wanted her to believe she did and decided to play along with it.   
-  
In late March, Yohane decided to consult Dia by herself for the first time. She could have done it earlier, but this was when she finally felt brave enough to face her on her own. Dia seemed surprised by the unusually determined look on Yohane’s face.  
“Do you need me for something?” she asked her, curious what Yohane came to discuss with her.  
“Yes, I do!” was all Yohane said in the human language before she switched to the demon language.   
“Dia, I want to know more about what happens to me when the school year ends.”   
It was unexpected for Yohane to ask her something like this, especially in the demon language, but she replied as sincerely as she could.  
“Well…You’re going to return to the demon world and continue your lifestyle there. And…”   
Dia paused to notice that Yohane looked a little different than when they first talked to each other.  
“Any change to your weight will transfer over to the demon world,” she stated, finishing her sentence.  
Yohane put her hands behind her back, squeezing her hands together. Now was the time for her to ask the specific questions she wanted the answers for.  
“Is it possible for me to not return to the demon world?” was her first question.   
“Why do you ask?”  
“I’ve found something in this world that makes me want to stay here.”  
“I see. Personally, I’d advise against it, but…”   
Before Dia could finish her sentence, she realized that she was also a demon that found things in the human world that made her want to stay, so she didn’t have much of an argument against her. Letting out a sigh, she told Yohane in the human language,  
“Give me time to think about it.”  
Yohane nodded in agreement, giving her a proper goodbye before leaving to go find Ruby and Hanamaru.  
-  
Mari seemed sadder between Valentine’s Day and now. She still had her usual happy aura and enjoyed spending time with everyone she knew, but every now and then, she’d experience a moment of silence and stiffen. Yohane tried her best to go about everything as normal with her, but she knew that Mari was still struggling with the possibility of Yohane leaving her forever.   
When Yohane was able to find Mari before the school day ended, she told her that she talked to Dia about the demon world situation and Mari perked up upon hearing this.  
“She said that she’ll think about letting me be able to stay here!” Yohane exclaimed.  
Mari gasped, almost knocking Yohane over with a hug. Excited, she squeezed Yohane until she heard a tiny squeak come from her and let go of her soon after that.   
“That’s amazing! I hope she-“   
Mari interrupted herself when she realized she had no clue why Dia would be the one Yohane had to discuss something like this with. She may have explained a lot about the demon world a while ago, but she didn’t know anything about Dia’s association with it.   
“Wait, why did you talk to Dia about it?”  
Yohane’s eyes widened. Through all of her long-winded explanations, she must have forgotten to mention anything about Dia. Wanting to help her understand, Yohane said calmly,  
“Dia’s a demon disguising as a human just like I am.”   
With a loud gasp that caused some students to look her way, Mari squeaked,  
“She is!?”  
“Yes…And she’s not just a demon in disguise, she’s the queen of the demon world in disguise.”  
Sputtering out indistinct words, Mari couldn’t process the news about Dia, the friend she had known for two years. Somehow, with everything they went through together, Mari never knew about this secret side of Dia. To her, Dia was just a normal human that occasionally got busy with things she liked to keep private.  
“Oh my god! Yohane, how did you know about this?” Mari asked once she was able to form coherent sentences again.  
“Demons are able to sense each other, even in disguise. She also responds to me whenever I speak in the demon language, something that humans can’t decipher.”   
“Thank you for telling me about this, Yohane!”   
“I’m glad you’re happy about it! But I think it’s best if you don’t tell Dia that you know about this,” Yohane warned her.  
Nodding and saluting to Yohane, Mari informed her that she would follow her order.


	11. Chapter 11

From the end of March to the start of May, the last month of the school year, Yohane became increasingly stressed out with each passing day. Dia still hadn’t told her the final decision, and it really was taking a toll on her emotionally.   
Because of worrying so much, she started eating less food, even when she was around Mari. Along with this, Ruby, Mari, and Hanamaru often found her leaning on one of them and clinging to them whenever they were around. Each time she did this, she’d grab onto one of their arms and hold it close to her body. The three of them let her do this because it seemed to help her calm down when she had a moment of sudden panic, but it was an unusual new habit for her.  
All of them were trying their best to keep Yohane calm, but Mari was also very worried about what was going to happen to Yohane once school was finished. She was still her usual cheerful self throughout the day, but when a student would hear her speak, they could sense that something was off.  
Unlike Yohane, who allowed herself to struggle with these feelings without doing anything to fix it, Mari was too frustrated to let herself deal with it any longer, and she decided to confront Dia about the situation.  
-  
When Mari found Dia, she frowned at her, loudly calling her name to get her to look in her direction. In response, Dia turned her head and calmly asked Mari,  
“What do you need, Mari?”  
“Please tell Yohane what you decided to do!” Mari answered just as loudly as before.  
Dia’s brows furrowed. Mari implying that she knew about the decision Dia left up in the air for Yohane made her wonder if Yohane told Mari that she was a demon like her, and she really hoped that wasn’t the case. Curious about how much Mari knew, Dia had a question for her.  
“What did Yohane say to you?”  
“She said that you were a demon in disguise like she was and that you were going to let her know whether she could stay here at the end of the year or not!” Mari stated, being completely honest with her.  
Dia made a choking sound upon finding out that Mari now knew about her being a demon. She thought she’d be able to keep it secret from Mari this year since it was the last month of the school year, but apparently, that wasn’t going to happen.   
“Please, Dia…,” Mari pleaded, “She’s getting really stressed out about this.”  
When Dia regained enough composure to speak again, she mumbled,  
“I-I’ll tell her very soon. But Mari?”  
“Yeah?”  
Dia shuffled her feet nervously, wanting to check to make sure she didn’t ruin her friendship with Mari.   
“You don’t think differently of me now that you know this about me, right?”  
Mari smiled. Of course she didn’t think differently of her. In fact, it actually helped explain some things for her that used to confuse her, and she was glad about that.  
“Nope! You’re the same Dia as you were before!”  
Hiding the smile forming on her face with her hand, Dia replied,  
“Thank you, Mari…”  
-  
A week before the school year would end, Dia caught Yohane’s attention outside by calling her Yohane for the first time this school year. Since she realized she was the only one still calling her by the name in her school files, she decided to join everyone else in calling her Yohane, even though she was very late in doing so.   
Yohane ran over to her, asking what she needed while slightly out of breath. Dia put a hand on the top of Yohane’s head as she told her,  
“I have some good news for you.”  
Her mouth opened wide with surprise as her eyes sparkled. The only good news she could think of hearing from Dia at a time like this was her being able to stay in the human world.   
“I have decided to give you the chance to stay in the human world,” she said, taking her hand off of Yohane’s head as she bowed.   
“Th-thank you so much!” Yohane stuttered, excited that her prediction was actually correct.  
Wanting to inform Yohane a little more about the subject, Dia explained,  
“For staying here, you have more than one option, and all of them are doable as long as I’m the one who does it for you. Only those that are part of the demon world’s royal court have this type of power, and you’re very lucky that I’m the queen.”  
“What are my options?” Yohane asked her curiously.  
Pointing up at the sky, Dia gave Yohane her first option.  
“Your first option is being able to stay in the human world and contact people from the demon world at the same time, but if you do this, your form is going to be invisible to humans like Ruby’s and Hanamaru’s have been.”   
Yohane nodded, trying to imagine spending time with Mari but having no one able to see or hear her, including Mari. She really didn’t like that option and wanted to see if the next option was better. Yohane encouraged Dia to tell her the second option so she could compare the two.  
“Your second option is keeping your human form but never being able to return to the demon world, even if you decided you wanted to come back to it. You also won’t be able to see Ruby or Hanamaru again if you choose this.”  
Yohane nodded once again, realizing that both options were going to be difficult for her. She loved being around all three of them, and having to choose between the two is something she really wished she didn’t have to do. However, something confused her about what Dia said. She didn’t understand how Dia could still be the queen of the demon world if she was staying as a human. When Yohane asked Dia about this, she got a little flustered by the question, but she quickly shook herself out of it and replied,  
“As the queen of the demon world, I am allowed to switch between the two worlds at will. Ruby will be able to do this too once you’re finished with your school year.”  
Yohane gasped quietly when she suddenly came up with an idea for Dia.  
“What about Ruby and Hanamaru? Is there an option where they can stay with me in the human world?”  
“Yes, but that would mean that they can’t return to the demon world, either.”  
“Let me ask them what they think about the idea!”   
Before Yohane could leave to try to find Ruby and Hanamaru, she flinched when she noticed the two of them standing right behind her. Both of them apologized to her and looked towards Dia.  
“Onee-chan…I’m okay with staying here, especially since you’re here too.”  
Stuttering a little, Dia replied,  
“A-are you sure?”   
“I’ll stay here too!” Hanamaru chimed in, knowing that once she confirmed she wanted to stay, everything would be resolved. Besides that, she really enjoyed the time she was able to spend in the human world.   
“So all of you want to stay here and have human forms instead of demon ones?”  
The three girls nodded in unison. Dia shook her head as she smiled at them.   
“Then I will do that for you. Yohane, move out of the way so I can change the forms of Ruby and Hanamaru.”  
Yohane obeyed her command, positioning herself so Ruby and Hanamaru were directly in front of Dia. With a fluid motion of her fingers, Dia converted the two demons into their human forms. The conversion process caused a bright red aura of light to shine around them, catching the attention of three other students in the area.  
Chika gasped loudly as she watched the light shining in front of her. Trying to cover her eyes, Riko advised her not to stare directly into the light. Although You agreed with Riko, she herself thought the light was too interesting to look away from.  
Once the light faded away, Ruby’s and Hanamaru’s human forms were revealed. Their eyes now had normal pupils instead of slits and Ruby’s twintails were now much shorter and Hanamaru’s hair was long and fluffy instead of hovering above her shoulders. Both of them wore casual clothes in colors similar to those they had in demon form.   
Chika, Riko, and You were pleasantly surprised to finally see what Ruby and Hanamaru looked like. Ruby and Hanamaru were also excited about their new forms, examining themselves for a moment before thanking Dia.   
“It’s no problem. Just know that you’ll all have to find a place for yourselves to live now since the caretakers you’re living with can’t keep you there once the school year ends.”  
Walking up to Dia from behind, Kanan asked,  
“Oh hey, are you two Ruby and Hanamaru?”   
Ruby and Hanamaru nodded in agreement. They didn’t expect Chika, Riko, You, and Kanan to witness their transformation, but they were okay with it, especially since all four of them were humans they trusted even back when they were invisible.   
“Yohane!” A familiar voice called out from behind her.  
It was Mari, running up to Yohane to hug her from behind. Ruby and Hanamaru were thankfully able to get out of the way before she reached them. As Mari squeezed her tightly, she asked with a pleading tone,  
“Yohane, what did Dia say?”  
Dia chose to be the one to answer her, responding sweetly.  
“She said that Yohane is going to stay here with you in the human world. Ruby and Hanamaru will as well.”   
Mari let go of Yohane to notice Ruby and Hanamaru staring at her with surprised looks on their faces.   
“Oh, these two are Ruby and Hanamaru? They’re both so cute!”  
Dia smiled, crossing her arms.  
“I guess they are. These three girls are going to have to find a place to live, but I’m sure they can figure out something.”  
“They can stay with me!” Mari said happily, raising her hand.   
“Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Well, Yohane, once your school year is over, you’re going to be living with Mari. Have fun with her,” Dia told them before giving all of them a polite goodbye and starting to leave.   
However, Kanan stopped Dia to give her a hug before she left, causing Chika and You to squeal about how sweet those two were together. Dia was a little embarrassed by their reactions, hiding her face in Kanan’s chest for a while. Kanan rubbing the back of her head made her hide even deeper.  
“Dia’s really amazing, isn’t she?” Kanan asked the seven other girls.  
Most of them expressed some form of agreement while others just stared and remained silent.   
Once Dia let go of Kanan, the two of them left together. Chika, Riko, and You left soon after them. Very happy about the good news Dia gave them, Mari pulled Ruby, Hanamaru, and Yohane into a warm group hug.   
Yohane was very grateful for how well everything turned out. Instead of being worried about the future ahead of her, she was now excited to see what would happen to her next.


End file.
